eiial  ^^etuituJie 


i 

1 
1 

i 

l.ir 

liiuiinmiHiii! 

fcr  

WKM 

u  1  lulluimHm  Rui 

iiuii  HHIHIiiHIil  iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHtiiiittiii 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

QF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


PENAL  SERVITUDE 


u 


PENAL  SERVITUDE 


E.  STAGG  WHITIN,  Ph.  D. 

GENERAL  SECRETARY 
NATIONAL  COMMITTEE  ON  PRISON  LABOR 

ASSISTANT  IN  SOCIAL  LEGISLATION 
IN  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


NEW  YORK 

NATIONAL  COMMITTEE  ON  PRISON  LABOR 

1912 


Copyright,  1912 

BY 

E.  Stagg  Whitin 

New  York 

all  rights  reserved 


BENJAMIN   H.  TYRREL 
New  York,  N.  Y. 


nv 


Aq^ 


PREFACE. 

The  material  contained  in  the  following  pages  is  but  a 
brief  summary  of  the  findings  of  the  National  Committee  on 
Prison  Labor,  on  which  the  members  of  the  Committee  have 
based  the  following  resolution,  November  24th,  191 1: 

"After  one  year  of  study  the  National  Committee  on  Prison  Labor 
found  the  preponderance  of  evidence  to  be  in  favor  of  the  state  use 
system;  after  a  second  year  of  study  and  further  investigation,  the 
Committee  is  in  a  position  to  declare  as  prejudicial  to  the  welfare  of 
the  prisoner,  the  prisoner's  family  and  the  public,  the  contract  system 
of  prison  labor.  The  Committee  therefore  declares  itself  opposed 
to  the  contract  system  of  prison  labor  and  to  every  other  system 
which  exploits  his  labor  to  the  detriment  of  the  prisoner." 

To  the  members  of  the  Committee: — 

Thomas  R.  Slicer  (Chairman),  R.  Montgomery  Schell  (Treasurer). 

Percy  A.  Atherton,  Mrs.  Samuel  J.  Barrows,  Miss  Helen  Varick 
Boswell,  Alexander  Johnson,  B.  A.  Larger,  Samuel  McCune  Lindsay, 
John  Mitchell,  Raymond  Robbins,  Henry  Solomon,  Leslie  Willis 
Sprague   (Executive  Committee). 

John  R.  Alpine,  Carol  Aronovici,  William  S.  Bennet,  Mrs.  Elmer 
Blair,  Mrs.  Ballington  Booth,  Mrs.  Clarence  Burns,  John  R.  Commons. 
Edgar  T.  Davies,  Miles  M.  Dawson,  William  H.  UeLacy,  John  K 
Frey,  Hamilton  Holt,  Richard  Lloyd  Jones,  Ben  Lindsey,  Alfred  E. 
Lunt,  Julian  Mack,  John  B.  Mayo,  Mrs.  Philip  N.  Moore,  Charles  P. 
Neill,  Thomas  M.  Osborne,  James  Bronson  Reynolds,  Charles  Edward 
Russell,  Louis  Livingston  Seaman,  Clarence  J.  Shearn,  John  J. 
Sonsteby,  Mrs.  Anna  Garlin  Spencer,  Mrs.  Perry  Starkweather,  War- 
ren S.  Stone,  Mrs.  William  Cumming  Story,  Charles  H.  Strong,  Mrs. 
Eva  McDonald  Valesh,  Edwin  P.  Wentworth,  John  Williams,  Miss 
Mary  Wood  and  others  (General   Committee). 

the  author  makes  due  acknowledgment,  and  trusts  that  the 
work,  which  has  but  just  begun,  will  be  continued  in  the  same 
broad  spirit  until  it  can  be  said  with  truth  that  neither  slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude,  not  even  as  punishment  for  crime, 
exists  within  the  United  States  or  any  place  subject  to  their 
jurisdiction. 

Kent  Hall,  Columbia  University.  E.  S.  W. 

Lincoln's  Birthday,  February  12th,  1912. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PREFACE. 

PART  1 

THE  ECONOMIC  PROBLEM. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE  ECONOMIC  STATUS  OF  PENAL  SERVITUDE. 

The  status  of  the  convict — penal  servitude.  Justice  today  page. 
can  conceive  of  no  state  without  penal  servitude.  Economic 
history — the  economic  value  of  the  labor  of  the  way- 
ward individual  has  directly  affected  the  methods  of  his 
punishment — galley — mine.  In  the  time  of  economic  distress 
the  hangman  was  the  most  convenient  agent.  Economic  demand 
for  colonists  for  America — cheaper  to  secure  the  type  of  labor 
from  Africa.  Idle  convicts  in  England — productive  work — 
sale  to  private  contractors.  Australia,  a  new  field.  Industrial 
revolution — children  in  mills — pressure  for  workmen — impover- 
ished state  sells  convicts  to  build  institutions.  The  earliest 
prisons  in  the  United  States  were  privately  owned.  Develop- 
ment of  the  function  of  the  government.  Organized  labor  the 
strongest  force.  Labor's  program  of  constructive  reform — New 
York  State  Constitutional  Amendment  in  1894 — spreading  over 
the  country — prisoner  worked  efficiently — return  to  the  state 
— support  wife  and  children.  New  devices  of  business — 
choice  of  the  disposition  of  the  wage  and  the  choice  as  to  the 
type  of  labor.  Slave  system  given  up — free  system  of  labor 
adopted.         .  ...  .  .  .  i 


PART  II 

THE  POLITICAL  PROBLEM. 


PAGE. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    SLAVER. 
The  Human  Problem.  .  .  ii 

CHAPTER  III. 

CONTROL. 

The  control  exercised  by  the  state — party  politics  directly 
affect  the  control — personal  element  must  give  way  to  adminis- 
trative machinery.  Popular  control  lacking.  Powers  of  super- 
vision and  control — three  kinds.  Development  of  the  central 
board  and  the  position  of  warden  the  sign  of  progress.  Power 
of  the  warden — limitations  by  contractual  relations — warden  a 
czar — may  nullify  orders  of  chaplain  or  doctor — warden  lives 
upon  the  institution — supreme  paternalism — requires  an  educator 
rather  than  a  politician  or  moralist.  Reform  in  centralized  au- 
thority— responsibility   definitely   located. 

County  and  municipal  penal  institutions  outside  of  centralized 
control.  Practical  constructive  scheme  coordinate  with  the  state 
system.  .  .  .  .  .  .19 

PART  III 

THE  INSTITUTION. 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE   LEACH. 

The  Human  Parasite  Who  Feeds  on  Parasites.       .        .  29 

CHAPTER  V. 

MAINTENANCE. 

To  maintain  the  convict  in  reasonable  health  and  safety  is 
the  first  duty  devolving  upon  the  authorities  under  whose  con- 


Ill 

trol  he  is  placed.  Leasing  of  long-term  convicts  in  a  few  in-  page. 
stances — short-term  convicts  in  twelve  states.  Sheriff  system  uni- 
versal— a  private  system  in  the  guise  of  a  public  system.  Main- 
tenance labor  reduces  the  cost  of  maintenance.  The  test  is 
efficiency — standardization  of  positions  and  duties — careful  selec- 
tion of  the  man  to  fill  the  position — incentives,  reward  and  wages 
— adequate  reports  and  records.  Convict  labor  used  in  construc- 
tion work — up-keep — culinary  and  commissary — articles  for  use 
of  institution — reclamation  of  articles.  Band.  Library.  Book- 
keeping. .  .  .  .  .  .31 

PART  IV 

EMPLOYMENT. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  REFORMER. 

To  make  a  vagrant  efficient  is  more  praiseworthy  than  to  make 
two  blades  of  grass  grow  where  one  grew  before.  .  .  39 

CHAPTER  VH. 

PRODUCTION  OF  COMMODITIES. 

Production  of  commodities  for  use  outside  of  the  institu- 
tion. Supervision — civil  or  private.  Road  work.  Farming. 
Mining — responsibility  for  accidents.  Manufacturing — convict 
as  efficient  as  the  free  man.  Business  initiative  of  the  warden. 
American  Federation  of  Labor — resolutions.  Capital  fund — 
state  appropriation — "revolving  fund."         .  .  .45 

PART  V 

THE  MARKET. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  PRODUCTS. 

Problem  of  the  market — what  the  market  shall  be — the  effect 
of  the  goods  upon  this  market,  upon  the  ultimate  consumer, 
upon     free    labor.       General     competitive    market.       Transfer. 


IV 

Cooperation  by  absolute  control — cooperative  feature  in  modern  page. 
industry.  Surplus  products.  Transfer  of  commodities  between 
institutions.  Preferred  market — classification  and  standardiza- 
tion— hazard  eliminated — goods  made  to  order — credits — Legis- 
lature has  a  right  to  supply  the  market  artificially  created.  Com- 
petitive market  distribution — the  effect  upon  the  market.  Meth- 
ods for  lessening  competition — limitation  of  output  based  on 
number  of  convicts — prohibition  of  manufacture  of  goods  in 
state  in  which  prison  was  located — prohibition  of  the  sale  of 
the  convict  goods  in  the  state  in  which  they  are  manufac- 
tured— branding  and  license.  All  subsidized  institutions  en- 
counter the  same  difficulty.  The  crux  of  the  difficulty — secur- 
ing in  a  competitive  market  a  fixed  market  price.  Ideal  solution — 
isolated  market.  Socialism  foreign  to  this  solution.  A  phase  of 
socialism  in  governmentally  subsidized  industries  to  control 
trusts.  Centralized  national  government — exchange  of  surplus 
commodities  between  states,  or  states  and  the  national  govern- 
ment. The  national  government  can  ensure  a  non-competitive 
market.  .  .  .  .  .  -57 

PART  VI 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  PROBLEMS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  WRECK. 
The  Education  of  a  Criminal.  .  .  yj 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  ASPECT. 

Industrial  education — modern  penological  thought — eugenics 
— modern  education,  control  of  the  wayward  activities  of  the  in- 
dividual. Work  to  some  attainable  end — occupations  available 
in  the  community — choice  of  work  for  institution — educational 
need — economic  need — practical  educational  value.  Selection  of 
man  for  special  type  of  work — large  number  of  small  industries. 
Interest    in    work — physical    punishment — stint     with    wage — 


state's    control — book    learning — social    intercourse — shortening;     i»age. 
of  period  of  incarceration — best  results  through  combination  of 
incentives.     Residental  trade  school.  .  .  .81 

PART  VII 

METHODS  OF  REFORM. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

MOVEMENTS  FOR  REFORM. 

Organized  movements  for  penological  reform — American 
Prison  Association^ — National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Cor- 
rection. Propagandist  associations.  New  York  State  Depart- 
ment of  Labor.  National  Committee  on  Prison  Labor.  National 
commission.  .  .  .  .  .89 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  TREND  OF  REFORM. 

What  to  do  about  it — model  law  impossible — possible  to  lay 
down  certain  principles — central  bureau  of  clearance — selection 
of  its  members — bureau  judicial — prevent  political  pressure  by 
recall  or  by  list — methods  of  report  and  accounting.     The  answer.  97 


\1 


APPENDIX  I 

REPORT  ON  THE  HOUSE  OF  CORRECTION,  JESSUP, 

MARYLAND. 

APPENDIX  II 

PRISON  LABOR  IN  PARTY  PLATFORMS. 

PRISON  LABOR  IN  GOVERNORS'  MESSAGES. 

PRISON  LABOR  IN  LEGISLATION. 


Vll 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Where  Convicts  Guard  Themselves. 
As  Prisoners  Work  for  Crime. 
Neither  Slavery  nor  Involuntary  Servitude,  except 
Child  Labor  the  Result  of  Prison  Labor 
The   Walls.  •        . 

Chart,  "State  Control  of  Prison  Labor." 
Chart,  "Prison  Labor  Control,  County  Convicts." 
Prisoners  Eat  in  Corridors. 
Map,  "Control  of  Maintenance,  State  Convicts." 
Map,  "Control  of  Maintenance,  County  Convicts." 
A  Factory  within  a  Prison. 
Map,  "Control  of  Production,  State  Convicts." 
Map,  "Control  of  Production,  County  Convicts." 
After  the  Banner  Mine  Disaster,  Littleton,  Ala. 
Map,  "Distribution  of  Products,  State  Convicts." 
Map,  "Distribution  of  Products,  County  Convicts." 
Polishing   the   Product. 
The  Convict  His  Own  Contractor. 
Wild  Oats  That  Made  a  Good  Harvest. 
Cutting.  .... 

Thomas  R.   Slicer,  Chairman   National    Committee 
Prison  Labor. 


FRONTISPIECE 

i 
I 

15 
19 

20 

21 

31 
32 

34 

41 

46 
48 

53 
58 
64 
71 
81 
81 
85 


on 


95 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  State  has  a  property  right  in  the  labor  of  the  prisoner. 
The  13th  Amendment  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States' 
provides  that  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  shall 
exist,  yet  by  inference  allows  its  continuance  as  punishment  for 
crime,  after  due  process  of  law.  This  property  right  the  state 
may  lease  or  retain  for  its  own  use,  the  manner  being  set  forth 
in  state  constitutions  and  acts  of  legislatures.  To  make  this  of 
material  value  the  prisoner's  labor  must  be  productive.  The  dis- 
tribution of  the  product  of  the  prisoner's  labor  inevitably  presents 
the  problem  of  competition,  and  the  unfair  competition  between 
prison  made  goods  and  those  produced  by  free  labor  has  over- 
shadowed the  fundamental  evil  inherent  in  penal  servitude  and 
has  caused  confusion  in  the  thought  underlying  prison  labor  reg- 
ulation by  legislative  enactment.- 

The  usual  penological  analysis  of  prison  labor  into  lease. ^ 
contract,  piece-price,  public  account  and  state-use  systems  is 
impossible  to  use  in  an  economic  analysis  of  the  labor  conditions 
involved.  Economically  two  systems  of  convict  production  and 
two  systems  of  distribution  of  convict-made  goods  exist:  pro- 
duction is  either  by  the  state  or  under  individual  enterprise ;  dis- 
tribution is  either  limited  to  the  preferred  state  use  market  or 
through  the  general  competitive  market.  In  the  light  of  such 
classification  the  convict  labor  legislation  of  recent  years  shows 
definite  tendencies  toward  the  state's  assumption  of  its  responsi- 
bility for  its  own  use  of  the  prisoners  on  state  lands,  in  state 
mines  and  as  operatives  in  state  factories ;  while  in  distribution 
the  competition  of  the  open  market,  with  its  disastrous  effect 

'Constitution  of  the  United  States,  13th  Amendment,  "Neither  slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  whereof  the 
party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist  within  the  United  States 
or  any  place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction." 

^"Labor  Legislation  of  191 1,"  ihc  American  Labor  Legislation  Review, 
vol.  I,  no.  3,  p.  122. 

'Henderson,  Charles  Richmond,  "Penal  and  Reformatory  Institutions," 
pp.  198-203. 


INTRODUCTION. 


upon  prices,  tends  to  give  place  to  the  use  of  labor  and  commodi- 
ties by  the  state  itself  in  its  manifold  activities.  Improvements 
like  these  in  the  production  and  distribution  of  the  products  miti- 
gate evils  but  in  no  vital  way  afifect  the  economic  injustice  always 
inherent  under  a  slave  system.  The  payment  of  wage  to  the 
convict  as  a  right  growing  out  of  his  production  of  valuable 
commodities  is  the  phase  of  this  legislation  which  tends  to 
destroy  the  slavery  condition.  Such  legislation  has  made  its 
appearance,  together  with  the  first  suggestion  of  right  of  choice 
allowed  to  the  convict  in  regard  to  his  occupation.  These 
statutes  still  waver  in  an  uncertain  manner  between  the  concep- 
tion of  the  wage  as  a  privilege,  common  to  England^  and  Ger- 
many,^ and  the  wage  as  a  right  as  it  exists  in  France.^  The  de- 
velopment of  the  idea  of  the  right  of  wage,  fused  as  it  is  with 
the  movement  towards  the  governmental  work  and  workshops, 
cannot  fail  to  stand  out  in  significance  when  viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  labor  movement. 

In  a  word  the  economic  progress  in  prison  labor  shown  in 
recent  legislation  is  toward  more  efficient  production  by  the  elim- 
ination of  the  profits  of  the  lessee ;  more  economical  distribution 
of  the  products  by  the  substitution  of  a  preferred  market,  where 
the  profits  of  the  middleman  are  eliminated,  in  place  of  the 
unfair  competition  with  the  products  of  free  labor  in  the  open 
market;  and  finally  the  curtailment  of  the  slave  system  by  the 
provision  for  wages  and  choice  of  occupation  for  the  man  in  penal 
servitude. 

The  problem  thus  stated  finds  its  explanation  in  the  history 
out  of  which  it  has  grown  and  its  solution  in  an  analysis  of  the 
conditions  existing  to-day  in  connection  with  the  control  of  penal 
institutions,  the  use  of  the  convict's  labor  in  their  maintenance 
and  in  the  production  of  marketable  commodities,  and  the  meth- 
ods of  distribution.  The  educational  and  social  value  of  methods 
at  present  in  vogue  cannot  be  secured  except  by  the  development 
of  a  more  perfect  synthesis,  which  shall  lead  inevitably  to  con- 

'Henderson,  Charles  Richmond,  "Modern  Prison  Systems,"  p.  128. 
57th  Congress,  2nd  Session,  H.  D.  vol.  gs. 

^Lombroso,  Caesar,  "Crime,  Its  Causes  and  Remedies,"  pp.  337-9. 
'Roux  Roger,  "Le  Travail  dans  les  Prisons,"  p.  31. 


INTRODUCTION.  Ill 

structive  reform,  based  upon  modern  ethical  conceptions  as  to 
the  duty  of  the  state  to  the  individual,  and  conceived  on  the  basis 
on  which  rests  modern  educational  thought — that  the  incentive 
of  interest  which  brings  hope  overcomes  the  wayward  tenden- 
cies of  the  race  and  leads  to  the  socialized  education  which  alone 
fits  the  individual  to  take  his  position  as  a  free  agent  in  our 
highly  organized  modern  society. 

With  these  phases  of  the  problem    the    following    chapters 
v/ill  deal. 


PART  I 

THE  ECONOMIC  PROBLEM. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  ECONOMIC  STATUS  OF  PENAL  SERVITUDE. 

The  status  of  the  convict — penal  servitude.  Justice  today  can  conceive 
of  no  state  without  penal  servitude.  Economic  history — the  economic 
value  of  the  labor  of  the  wayward  individual  has  directly  affected  the 
methods  of  his  punishment — galley — mine.  In  the  time  of  economic  dis- 
tress the  hangman  was  the  most  convenient  agent.  Economic  demand  for 
colonists  for  America — cheaper  to  secure  the  type  of  labor  from  Africa. 
Idle  convicts  in  England — productive  work — sale  to  private  contractors. 
Australia,  a  new  field.  Industrial  revolution — children  in  mills — pressure 
for  workmen — impoverished  state  sells  convicts  to  build  institutions.  The 
earliest  prisons  in  the  United  States  were  privately  owned.  Development 
of  the  function  of  the  government.  Organized  labor  the  strongest  force. 
Labor's  program  of  constructive  reform — New  York  State  Constitutional 
Amendment  in  1894 — spreading  over  the  country — prisoner  worked  effi- 
ciently— return  to  the  state — support  wife  and  children.  New  devices  of 
business — choice  of  the  disposition  of  the  wage  and  the  choice  as  to  the 
type  of  labor.     Slave  system  given  up — free  system  of  labor  adopted. 

"Will  you  buy  me,  Sah?"  asked  a  boy  convict  in  an  Alabama 
convict  camp,  when  approached  by  the  writer.  "Won't  you  buy 
me  out,  Sah?"  he  reiterated  to  the  rejoinder,  "I'm  not  buying 
niggers."  "It'll  only  cost  you  $20,  Sah,  an'  I'll  work  fer  you 
as  long  as  you  say.  I'se  fined  $1.00,  Sah,  and  got  $75  costs, 
rse  worked  off  all  but  $20.  Do  buy  me  out,  Sah,  please  do."^ 
The  wail  was  raised  by  a  small  boy  of  fourteen  years,  with  black 
skin,  in  a  particular  camp,  3'et  the  appeal  is  the  appeal  of  many 
thousands  who  from  want,  disease  or  evil  environment  have 
passed  for  a  time  out  of  our  world  into  the  hell  on  earth  which 
we,  in  our  wisdom,  have  prepared  for  them ;  the  appeal  recog- 
nized the  real  economic  status  of  our  penal  system. 

The  status  of  the  convict  is  that  of  one  in  penal  servitude"^ — 
the  last  surviving  vestige  of  the  old  slave  system.  With  its 
sanction  in  the  common  law,  its  regulation  in  the  acts  of  legisla- 
tures, and  its  implied  recognition  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  it  continues  unchallenged  and  without  question, 

'Banner   Mine,   Alabama,    May    1911. 
^American  and  English  Encyclopedia  of  Law — 1898 
vol.    22 — p.    1302. 


2  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

as  a  basic  institution,  supposedly  necessary  to  the  continued  sta- 
bility of  our  social  structure. 

Slavery  was  conceived  as  necessary  to  the  stability  of  society 
until  it  was  done  away  with.  The  world  progress  has  been  said 
;  to  be  based  upon  the  conquest  of  the  weak  and  uncivilized  by 
(^  the  strong  and  supposedly  virtuous.^  Plato  could  depict  no  state 
of  ideal  justice  without  a  slave  class.-  Justice  to-day  can  conceive 
of  no  state  without  penal  servitude,  yet  those  same  forces  which 
overthrew  the  black  slavery  of  a  generation  ago  are  to-day  tend- 
ing unperceived''  to  limit  and  to  change  this  penal  form  of  slavery 
till  it  too  may  soon  be  considered  with  the  historic  past. 

The  changes  which  are  destined  to  come  in  the  institution 
of  penal  servitude  must  inevitably  be  based  upon  that  great 
changing  mass  of  conditions  which  has  so  far  shaped  the  form 
and  tendency  of  this  old  institution.  Its  history  can  best  inter- 
pret its  true  economic  status  to-day  and  form  a  basis  for  that 
more  conscious  evolution  which  is  to  follow. 

Economic  history  in  its  dealing  with  human  motives  points 
to  the  underlying  economic  motive  in  all  development.  To 
trace  anew  that  field  is  unnecessary.  It  is  sufficient  to  point 
out  that  the  economic  value  of  the  labor  of  the  zvayward  indi- 
vidual has  directly  affected  the  methods  of  punishment.  The 
economic  need  of  a  slave  class  substituted  the  galley  and  the  mine, 
for  banishment  and  the  death  penalty.  Crime  destroyed  the 
status  of  citizenship,  or  the  protection  of  the  group ;  slavery  sub- 
stituted another  status  in  which  the  offender's  life  could  be 
lived.  It  was  only  the  overthrow  of  feudalism  and  the  coming 
of  modern  times  that  made  necessary  a  differentiation  between 
the  control  over  the  serf  and  the  control  over  the  penal  slave. 
Feudalism  needed  no  other  sanction  for  the  control  of  the 
wayward  than  it  already  exerted  over  its  own  serfs — the  central 
government  which  took  its  place  as  the  controlling  force  had  to 
face  the  problem  from  a  different  angle.*     The  economic  value 

^Hobhouse,  L.  T.,  "Morals  in  Evolution,"  p.  79. 
*Plato,  "Republic,"  Bk.  11. 

'"Labor  Legislation  of  191 1,"  The  American  Labor  Legislation  Review, 
vol.  I,  no.  3,  p.  I2S. 

*Hall,  A.  G.,  "Crime  and  Special  Progress,"  p.  222. 


THE    ECONOMIC    STATUS    OF    PKXAL    SI:R\ITUDP:.  3 

of  the  criminal  to  a  state  that  had  no  serfdom  to  exploit  became 
as  nothing,  and  in  the  time  of  economic  distress  that  ensued  tiie 
hangman  was  the  most  convenient  agent  to  rid  the  country  of 
this  dangerous,  lawless  element.  The  line  of  cleavage  between 
the  landless  man  and  the  outlaw  lay  confused  through  all  this 
period.  The  sixteenth  century  in  England  saw  the  govern- 
m.ent's  assumption  of  control^  over  the  w^andering  class  and  the 
attempts  to  make  rules  and  regulations  which  would  coiifme  the 
itinerant  laborer  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  state,  while  the 
courts  defined  his  every  act.  Control  proved  ineflfective  without 
agencies  where  for  refractory  cases  discipline  could  be  admin- 
istered. The  almhouse  and  workhouse  came  as  a  result — the 
able-bodied  beggar  was  forced  to  work  and  if  he  would  not 
work  his  wayward  career  was  inevitably  terminated  by  the  hang- 
man. The  system  had  little  more  than  taken  form  when  the 
economic  demand  for  colonists  for  America^  brought  another 
substitute  for  the  hangman  and  relieved  the  government  of  any 
special  need  for  controlling  the  mass  of  unemployed.  Boat  loads 
of  these  white  convicts  came  to  America  to  be  exchanged  at  the 
wharf  for  the  price  of  the  passage  and  a  profit  to  the  contractor 
who  delivered  them  to  serve  as  slaves  to  the  earlier  colonists  who 
possessed  them  for  a  series  of  years.  Many  of  these  slaves 
served  out  their  time  and  lived  on  in  the  community  in  which 
they  were  landed.  Those  with  vicious  tendencies  soon  broke 
away  from  their  new  masters  and  made  for  the  western  country 
— thus  as  substitute  for  prison  America  served  England  for 
years.  This  mild  method  of  reform  was  to  provide  new 
opportunities  and  new  environments  with  the  hope  and  assur- 
ance of  speedy  development  through  thrift  to  economic  inde- 
pendence and  even  wealth.  Not  only  in  Ogelthorp's  colony,^  but 
in  all  the  colonies,  reformation  was  the  natural  process.  Just 
how  much  evil  resulted  from  this  system  is  hard  to  determine, 
but  it  is  probably  open  to  question  whether  the  colonists  would 
have  protested  against  the  deportation  of  criminals  from  England 

'Aschrott  and  Preston-Thomas,  "The  English  Poor-Law  System,"  p.  2. 
*Fiske,  John,  "The  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies  of  America,"  vol.   11, 
p.  286. 

^Fiske,  John,  "Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors,"  p.  334. 


4  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

if  they  had  not  found  it  cheaper  to  secure  the  type  of  labor  they 
desired  from  Africa. 

With  no  place  to  put  convicted  criminals  and  no  system  for 
working  them,  the  countries  of  Europe  were  face  to  face  with 
a  great  problem.^  Naturally  they  turned  to  the  workhouses  and 
the  small  jails  which  they  had  used  for  detention  before  depor- 
tation and  found  them  crowded  to  overflowing  with  idle  convicts. 
It  is  these  conditions  which  John  Howard  found  in  England'^  and 
on  the  continent;  it  is  these  conditions  which  Jeremy  Bentham 
tried  to  provide  for  in  his  Panopticon^;  it  is  these  conditions 
which  Elizabeth  Fry*  ameliorated  at  Newgate.  Work,  pro- 
ductive zvork,  was  the  solution  of  Elizabeth  Fry  and  also  of  Ben- 
tham— Mrs.  Fry  organized  it  under  private  charity;  Bentham 
pointed  out  the  advantages  of  the  convicts'  sale  to  private  con- 
tractors. The  opening  of  Australia^  substituted  a  new  Held  in 
which  another  economic  use  could  be  found  for  the  convict. 

The  Colonies  not  only  had  convicts  sent  them,  but  naturally 
had  wayward  of  their  own.  The  method  of  the  frontier  was 
crude ;  the  unwritten  law  provided  for  many  cases.  In  the  more 
refined  communities  ducking,  stocks,  pillory,  branding,  and  the 
whipping  post  were  the  more  common  forms.®  Hard  labor  was 
not  unknown,  especially  in  the  payment  of  fines  which  in  many 
cases  were  worked  off  in  servitude  similar  to  that  of  indented 
servant-convicts.  The  open  country  proved  a  refuge  for  most 
criminals,  so  the  problem  did  not  present  any  real  difficulty  until 
the  time  of  the  Revolution.  A  few  years  previous  Connecticut 
had  conceived  the  idea  of  huddling  the  few  convicts  that  she  had 
into  the  underground  caverns  at  Newgate',  while  in  New  York® 
the  old  hulks  in  the  bay  were  used  for  the  same  purpose.      The 

^Hall,  A.  G.,  "Crime  and  Social  Progress,"  p.  225. 

^Howard,  John,  "State  of  Prisons." 

^Bentham,  Jeremy,  "Panopticon." 

*Fry,  Elizabeth,  "Observations  on  the  Visiting,  Superintendence  and 
Government  of  Female  Prisoners,"  pp.  48-53. 

'Encyclopedia  Americana,  vol.   11. 

'Wines,  E.  H.,  "Punishment  and  Reformation,"  Ch.  V. 

'Edwards,  A.  M.,  "The  Labor  Legislation  of  Connecticut,"  p.  220, 
Publications  of  the  American  Economic  Association,  vol.   VIII,  no.  .?. 

'Dandridge,   D.,  "American   Prisoners  of  the  Revolution,"  p.    192. 


THE    ECONOMIC    STATUS    OF    PENAL    SERVITUDE.  5 

outbreak  of  the  Revolution  found  in  army  service  a  new  line  of 
work  for  the  criminals,  while  their  place  was  taken  by  prisoners 
of  war.  The  prison  ships  at  Wallabout  marked  the  depths  of 
wretchedness  that  can  be  reached,  and  impressed  upon  the  mind 
of  the  American  patriots  the  horror  of  prisons. 

The  demand  for  cheap  labor,  brought  about  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  machinery,  which  produced  the  industrial  revolution,  pro- 
vided a  new  industrial  use  for  the  convict.  The  movement  which 
in  England  took  the  children  from  their  homes,  almshouses  and 
reformatories  to  be  ground  to  pieces  in  mills,  found  its  check  at 
the  hands  of  Shaftesbury^  and  Owen^  in  the  government's  control 
of  these  unfortunates.^  The  same  movement  found  a  similar  ex- 
pression in  the  United  States,  where  for  almost  a  century  the 
state  has  been  increasing  its  power  to  protect  the  child  from  ex- 
ploitation.* What  befell  the  helpless  child  befell  in  like  manner 
the  helpless  convict,  yet  in  old  England  the  economic 
demand  for  colonists  for  Australia  vied  with  the  demand  for 
cheap  workmen.  In  the  United  States,  and  especially  the  orig- 
inal thirteen,  the  pressure  for  ivorkmen  came  with  full  power 
upon  a  condition  of  things  which  made  the  exploitation  of  the 
convict  well  nigh  impossible  to  prevent.  The  humanitarian 
idea,  which  rebelled  against  the  infliction  of  the  death  penalty  for 
slight  cause,  vented  itself  as  strenuously  against  the  inhuman 
methods  of  huddling  the  offenders,  old  and  young,  insane  and 
sick,  male  and  female,  into  a  den  amid  conditions  like  those  John 
Howard  condemned.  Furthermore  it  protested  against  the  idle- 
ness and  wantonness  of  these  places  and  blamed  the  state  for  its 
failure  to  suitably  provide  for  these  wretches.  An  impover- 
ished state,  endeavoring  to  provide  for  the  development  of  its 
schools  and  charitable  institutions,  was  forced  to  follow  the  line 
of  least  resistance  and  sell  its  convicts,  old  and  young,  to  the 
industrial  avarice  of  the  times,  in  the  hope  that  out  of  the  returns 

'Hodder,  Edwin,  "The  Life  and  Work  of  the  Seventh  Earl  of  Shaftes- 
bury, K.  G.,"  Ch.  III. 

"Lloyd-Jones,  "Life,  Times  and  Labors  of  Robert  Owen,"  pp.  146-154. 

'Report  of  Parliamentary  Committee  on  Children  in  Factories — House 
of  Commons,  1832. 

*Whitin,  E.  S.,  "Factory  Legislation  in  Maine,"  p.  26.  Series  History, 
Economics  and  Public  Law,  Columbia  University. 


6  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

it  should  receive  it  might  build  institutions  of  an  enduring  type 
for  its  dependents  as  well  as  its  delinquents,  and  pose  before  the 
world  as  the  example  of  institution  building  which  could  be 
followed  by  reformers  across  the  sea.  Despite  the  grandeur  of 
our  penitentiary  system,  the  exploitation  for  private  gain  of  its 
inmates  has  continued,  so  that  while  the  state  has  slowly  but 
surely  come  to  control  the  industries  of  its  children^,  the  control 
of  its  convict  industries  is  still  a  new  thought  in  many  states 
to-day. 

The  earliest  pris'ons  in  the  United  States  were  privately 
ozvned.  The  state  paid  a  small  sum  for  the  keep  and  guarding 
of  the  prisoners  whom  the  private  individuals  worked  at  their 
own  discretion,  deriving  from  the  work  what  profits  they  might.' 
We  next  see  the  head  of  the  penal  institution  appointed  by  the 
state  but  paid  by  individual  manufacturers  for  whose  profit  he 
worked  his  prisoners.^  The  placing  of  the  warden  upon  a  salary 
basis  under  the  state*  and  the  refusal  to  allow  him  to  participate 
in  the  sales  and  profits  of  the  labor  of  the  convicts  has  followed 
in  many  states.  The  warden  has  become  the  state's  representa- 
tive as  guardian  of  the  prisoners,  while  individual  manufacturers 
vie  with  him  in  the  control  of  the  institution  and  endeavor  to 
secure  as  large  an  output  from  the  prison  shops  as  possible,  for 
which  they  endeavor  to  pay  as  little  as  possible.  This  condition 
prevails  in  many  states  to-day — in  others  the  functions  of  the  state 
and  of  its  representative  the  warden  have  grown  until  the  warden 
has  become  the  manager  of  the  great  prison  industrial  plant, ^  hav- 
ing under  him  industrial  foremen  and  mechanical  assistance  of 
such  character  as  is  necessary  to  produce  efficient  and  compre- 
hensive management.  In  some  states  the  function  of  the  warden 
has  extended  to  the  sale  of  the  commodities  and  his  agents  go 

^National  Child  Labor  Committee — Pamphlets  issued  during  1905-1912. 

^Eaves,  L.  C,  "California  Labor  Legislation,"  p.  351.  University  of 
California,  Publications  on  Economics. 

^This  system  is  still  (1912)  in  vogue  in  some  Alabama  convict  mines. 

*Edwards,  A.  M.,  "The  Labor  Legislation  of  Connecticut,"  p.  235. 
Publications  of  the  American  Economic  Association,  vol.  VIII,  no.  3. 

'Superintendent  of  Prisons,   New  York  State,  "Annual  Reports." 


THE    ECONOMIC    STATUS   OF    PENAL    SERVITUDE.  / 

up  and  down  the  state  exhibiting  their  wares,  getting  orders  for 
the  future  deHvery  of  goods,  and  even  providing  for  the  instal- 
lation of  the  articles  manufactured.^  Such  has  been  the  develop- 
ment of  the  function  of  the  government  in  its  connection  with  the 
prisoner  during  the  last  twenty  years.  It  finds  its  expression  in 
one  form  or  another  in  every  state. 

Organized  labor  with  its  long  and  persistent  agitation  against 
the  unfair  competition  of  convict  goods  upon  the  open  market 
probably  has  been  the  strongest  force  toward  the  development 
of  the  state's  function  in  the  care  of  the  prisoner.  As  the  con- 
trol of  the  state  upon  prison  industries  has  become  greater, 
the  power  of  labor  to  restrict  them  through  control  of  the  state 
legislatures  has  also  become  greater,  and  the  history  of  most  of 
our  states  shows  that,  when  labor  is  once  aroused  to  an  antagon- 
ism to  any  specific  form  of  commodity  manufactured  in  prison, 
sufficient  influence  can  be  brought  to  bear  to  abolish  its  manu- 
facture. 

The  competition  complained  of  by  organized  labor  will  be 
fully  illustrated  in  Chapter  IX.  This  opposition  to  unfair 
competition  forced  labor  to  a  program  of  constructive  reform^ 
for  employing  the  convict.  In  the  New  York  State  Constitutional 
Convention  of  1894  the  labor  unions  secured  the  passage  of  a 
"state  use"  regulation  providing  that  the  labor  of  the  prisoners 
should  not  be  sold  or  leased  but  that  the  state  should  produce 
those  things  which  the  state  could  consume.  This  movement 
started  in  New  York  is  spreading  over  the  country.  Of  the 
legislatures  that  met  in  the  year  191 1,  twenty-one^  made  some 
provision  for  the  state's  assumption  and  operation  of  its  indus- 
tries, while  eight  provided  in  some  manner  for  the  state's  con- 
sumption of  manufactured  articles  and  six  established  laws  for 
the  regulation  of  prices  and  the  standardization  of  the  commodi- 
ties manufactured.  Like  New  York,  five — California,  Missouri, 
New  Jersey,  Ohio,  Wyoming — provided  for  the  state's  produc- 

^Minnesota  State  Prison,  "Report  1909-1910." 

^Lincoln,  C.  Z.,  "Constitutional  History  of  New  York  State,"  vol.  III. 
pp.  247-297. 

"'Labor  Legislation  of  191 1,"  The  American  Labor  Legislation  Review, 
vol.  I,  no.  3,  p.  124. 


8  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

tion  and  consumption  of  the  goods  upon  which  the  convicts  labor. 
The  feeling  is  abroad  that  it  is  the  state's  duty  not  only  to  provide 
labor  for  its  convicts,  but  labor  of  such  character  as  in  no 
way  to  penalize  free  labor  and  the  free  artisan ;  that,  though  the 
prisoner  should  not  be  exploited  for  private  gain,  he  should  be 
worked  efficiently  so  that  he  may  return  to  the  state  the  full 
amount  of  his  cost  to  it,  and,  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  support 
his  wife  and  children. 

The  economic  forces  have,  as  we  have  seen,  tended  to  shape 
the  form  of  punishment  for  our  criminals.  It  was  natural  in 
the  period  of  individual  competition  and  the  exploitation  of  the 
weak  by  the  strong  that  these  weaklings  of  the  race  should  have 
been  exploited  and  made  as  slaves;  likewise  in  the  age  of  great 
industrial  corporations  it  is  but  natural  that  the  state  itself 
should  grow  into  a  great  industrial  corporation,  and  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  many  new  devices  of  business,  exclude  the  waste 
from  its  management.  The  overcoming  of  waste  brings  the 
demand  for  industrial  efficiency — the  efficiency  of  the  convict 
slave,  which  is  industrially  demanded,  promises  a  new  develop- 
ment, destined  to  strike  at  the  very  basis  of  the  slave  system 
itself.  Universally  the  contractor  who  hires  the  penal  slave  for 
exploitation,  claims  for  the  production  of  efficiency  and  indus- 
trial advantage  he  must  be  allowed  to  task  his  slave  and  pay 
him  wage  for  work  over  the  stint.  The  state  when  it  employs  the 
convict  finds  necessary  this  same  economic  principle  and  adds 
^'^  '<•  in  some  few  instances  the  choice  of  the  disposition  of  the 
st-v-'je  *i«^  the  choice  as  to  the  type  of  labor. '^  Verily  a  new  day 
dawns.  Its  significance  as  an  evolution  "up  from  slavery"  was 
never  better  expressed  than  in  the  prophetic  words  of  the  mar- 
tyred Lincoln  when  he  said : 

"Free  labor  has  the  inspiration  of  hope ;  pure  slavery 
has  no  hope ;  the  power  of  hope  upon  human  exertion  and 
happiness  is  wonderful;  the  slave  master  himself  has  a 
conception  of  it,  hence  the  system  of  tasks  amongst 
slaves ;  the  slave  whom  you  cannot  drive  with  the  lash  to 
break  seventy-five  pounds  of  hemp  on  a  day,  if  you  task 

'Acts  of  Nevada,  191 1 — c.  71. 


THE    ECONOMIC    STATUS   OF    PENAL   SERVITUDE.  9 

him  to  break  a  hundred  and  promise  him  wage  for  all 
over,  he  will  break  you  one  hundred  and  fifty.  You  have 
substituted  hope  for  the  rod,  and  yet  perhaps  it  does  not 
occur  to  you  that,  to  the  extent  of  your  gain  in  the  case, 
you  have  given  up  the  slave  system  and  adopted  the  free 
system  of  labor."^ 

'Lincoln,   Abraham,   "Slavery — A   Fragment   Written   About   July    ist, 
1854,"  The  Century  Edition,  p.  16. 


"Its  dealings  with  the  criminal  mark,  one  may  say,  the  zero 
point  in  the  scale  of  treatment  which  society  conceives  to  be 
the  due  of  its  various  members.  If  we  raise  this  point  we  raise 
the  standard  all  along  the  scale.  The  pauper  may  justly  expect 
something  better  than  the  criminal,  the  self-supporting  poor  man 
or  woman  than  the  pauper.  Thus  if  it  is  the  aim  of  good  civili- 
zation to  raise  the  general  standard  of  life,  this  is  a  tendency 
which  a  savage  criminal  law  will  hinder  and  a  humane  one 
assist." 

L.  T.  Hohhouse,  "Morals  in  Evolution" 
Law  and  Justice,  p.   113. 


PART  II 

THE  POLITICAL  PROBLEM. 


CHAPTER     II. 

THE    SLAVER. 
The  Human  Problem. 

He's  a  jolly  fellow,  this  Slaver!  If  you  live  in  Syracuse  you 
won't  deny  it ;  if  you  live  in  Liverpool,  N.  Y.,  you  can't  afford  to. 
Outside  the  limits  of  Onondaga  County,  probably  very  few  have 
seen  this  big  burly  fellow,  felt  the  weight  of  his  fist  as  he  grasps 
your  hand,  or  heard  the  ring  in  his  laugh  as  he  assures  you,  "No 
jury  in  the  county  will  dare  bring  an  indictment  against  me  no 
how."  He  means  it  too,  the  same  as  when  he  tells  the  citizens  of 
his  little  pocket  borough  in  Liverpool,  "I'll  damn  the  man  who 
talks  against  me.  I'll  break  him  or  jail  him."  It's  not  a  vain 
boast  either,  owning  as  he  does  mortgages  which  cover  most  of 
the  town  of  Liverpool,  while  controlling  its  one  real  industry, 
basket-making — he  is  the  industrial  dictator.  Then  as  sheriff  he 
can  make  a  scoop  once  in  a  while  and  few  men  living  have  not 
violated  some  obsolete  statute.  "These  folks  look  on  me  as  a 
benefactor,"  remarks  this  regeneration  of  Bill  Tweed.  "I  take 
care  of  the  boys,"  which  means  that  any  enthusiastic  young  fel- 
low who  appears  in  the  community  is  immediately  found  a  job 
in  some  Western  town  where  his  independence  will  be  appre- 
ciated. Independence  is  absurd,  so  absurd  that  there  dwells  in 
the  town  only  one  old  man  whom  Fred  Slaver  cannot  control, 
a  queer  man  who  will  not  accept  a  political  job  or  even  be  begged 
into  loyalty  to  the  present  town  authorities.  With  unpaid  notes 
over  his  head,  held  by  this  local  political  boss,  which  cannot  be 
met,  with  few  to  console  and  lots  to  condemn,  this  daring  re- 
former has  not  hesitated  to  appeal  through  the  press  to  the  people 
of  Onondaga  County  and  through  official  channels  to  most  of  those 
in  positions  of  power  at  the  Capitol  at  Albany. 

The  insurgent  movement  throughout  the  country  will  duplicate 
this  struggle  at  Liverpool,  but  probably  nowhere  are  the  lines  more 
closely  drawn  and  the  struggle  more  imbued  with  human  inter- 


12  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

est  or  the  principles  involved  more  fundamental.  To  understand 
the  comedy  we  must  go  back  fifty  or  sixty  years  when  in  the 
quaint  little  town  of  Liverpool  there  settled  a  number  of  Ger- 
mans one  of  whom  was  named  Dicker.  Dicker  came  from  a 
German  town  where  basketry  was  the  common  occupation. 
Finding  that  willows  grew  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Onondaga, 
he  soon  started  to  make  baskets  for  his  own  use.  On  being 
offered  money  for  the  baskets  he  made,  he  became  aware  of  a 
market  for  them  and  began  to  peddle  them  about  to  the  farmers 
of  the  district,  receiving  from  them  milk,  butter  or  eggs  in  return. 
The  industry  was  taken  up  by  other  villagers  and  Dicker  soon 
was  kept  busy  supplying  willows  to  his  neighbors  and  in  seeking 
a  market  for  their  work  in  other  communities.  In  this  business 
he  allowed  other  people  of  the  town  to  share,  but  gave  special 
privileges  to  the  members  of  his  own  family,  one  of  whom,  Fred. 
Slaver,  finally  became  his  partner.  The  business  grew  and  Liver- 
pool became  the  national  centre  for  the  production  of  clothes 
baskets.  As  the  industry  developed  competition  between  their 
baskets  and  imported  baskets,  charges  against  smuggled  goods 
and  avoidance  of  the  tariff  provisions  enraged  the  little  commun- 
ity. Slaver  and  Dicker  "studied  the  problem"  and  learned  that 
the  Austrian  Government  had  voted  $250,000  a  year  for  a  period 
of  five  years  to  be  spent  in  the  encouragement  of  the  basket  indus- 
try in  Austrian  penal  institutions.  The  national  custom  regula- 
tions forbade  the  entrance  of  these  convict  made  baskets,  still 
the  vigilance  of  the  federal  government  did  not  seem  to  abate  the 
evil.  The  market  was  undersold — Dicker  could  get  no  profits. 
Gradually  the  thought  came  to  him  that  the  way  to  get  around 
the  Austrians  was  not  to  fight  the  Austrians  but  to  follow  their 
example.  Why  not  have  his  willows  stripped  at  the  Onondaga 
Penitentiary?  One  night,  reading  in  a  paper,  'tis  said,  an  ex- 
tract from  the  constitution  of  New  York  State  which  provides 
for  the  manufacture  of  convict-made  goods  in  the  prisons  of 
New  York,  but  restricts  their  sale  to  institutions  of  the  state  and 
political  divisions  thereof,  the  suggestion  came  to  him  that  there 
was  probably  some  way  of  "getting  round  the  constitution."  His 
partner.  Slaver,  was  a  political  factor  in  the  town,  being  in  con- 
trol of  the  dominant  party.     The  phrase  "the  state  and  political 


THE   SLAVER.  I3 

divisions  thereof"  impressed  Fred  Slaver  very  much  though  to 
this  day  he  refers  to  it  as  "the  state  and  its  RepubHcan  divisions," 
the  terms  being  interchangeable  in  that  part  of  the  country. 
Through  Slaver's  influence  a  resolution  was  introduced  into  the 
Town  Board  of  Salina,  the  town  in  which  Liverpool  is  located, 
to  the  effect  that  the  town-poor  peel  willows,  and  whatever  they 
could  not  do  be  let  on  a  contract  to  the  Onondaga  Penitentiary. 
So  Fred  Slaver  will  tell  you  if  you  give  him  a  chance,  his 
memory  being  more  exact  than  the  scribbled-up  books  of  the 
town;  but  at  any  rate  some  ten  years  ago  the  Town  Supervi- 
sor, being  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Supervisors  and  having  con- 
trol of  the  penitentiary,  got  the  tip  and  entered  into  a  contract 
with  the  penitentiary  in  the  name  of  the  town  of  Salina.  The  offi- 
cials of  the  town  and  penitentiary  signed  and  confirmed  it,  having 
been  assured  by  eminent  counsel  that,  while  it  was  getting  round 
the  constitution,  they  were  not  criminally  liable  because  "the 
town  is  a  Republican  division."  Fred  Slaver  immediately  became 
agent  for  the  town — what  an  agent  of  a  town  is  you  must  ask 
Slaver,  the  eminent  law-makers  having  failed  to  insert  it  in  the 
list  of  town  officers,  but  that  was  their  fault  and  with  their  faults 
Fred  Slaver  had  not  a  thing  to  do.  Furthermore  the  law-makers 
having  forgotten  something  essential,  suggested  the  desirability 
of  the  Town  Board  also  forgetting  what  was  equally  as  essential 
— that  reports  and  checks,  accountings  and  disbursements  of 
their  honorable  Agent  be  made  note  of  in  the  accounts  of  the 
town.  Slaver  was  agent,  the  next  year  he  was  supervisor.  How 
could  anybody  question  his  right  to  pay  for  the  business  of  the 
town  either  in  check  or  cash,  to  say  who  should  send  the  wil- 
low to  the  penitentiary  to  be  stripped  and  who  should  go  with- 
out, to  regulate  the  commission  of  the  honorable  Agent,  to  ar- 
range freight  rates  and  even  hire  an  instructor  for  the  convicts  at 
the  penitentiary? 

Once  they  did  take  recognition.  The  solemn  occasion  was 
when  the  Town  President,  the  Treasurer,  and  Justice,  all  hav- 
ing their  feet  up  on  the  stove  in  the  front  room  of  the  smaller 
of  the  two  saloons  in  the  town,  all  together  spat  into  the  stove 
and  resolved  that  the  Town  President  should  inquire  of  the  Agent 


14  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

whether  he  was  doing  justice  to  all  the  poor — but  then  no  record 
of  this  was  recorded  in  the  minutes  of  the  meeting,  the  meeting 
having  adjourned  before  they  spat.  The  good  brother  didn't  get 
far  with  his  report  for,  while  the  town  is  poor,  the  amiable  per- 
sons who  are  on  the  poor  rates  are  only  veterans  of  the  party 
when  political  jobs  give  out.  The  rest  of  the  poor  folks 
enjoy  the  proud  distinction  of  being  allowed  to  work  on  the 
baskets,  not  eight  hours,  not  ten,  but  twelve,  thirteen,  fourteen, 
fifteen,  sixteen — well  I  mustn't  go  on  because  you  won't  believe 
me,  but  you  ask  these  good  folks  and  they'll  go  on  still  higher 
enumerating  their  blessings.  Then  the  children  are  allowed  to 
work  and  the  work  being  done  at  home  there  is  no  factory  re- 
striction— the  baby  of  three  does  what  it  can  while  it  sucks  the 
end  of  the  willow;  the  old  blind  grandmother  tells  her  beads 
with  a  turn  of  the  basket.  All  combined  they  are  thankful  to 
make  $2.00  a  day  which  the  careful  housewife  parcels  out  in 
small  installments  so  that  they  may  eke  out  a  humble  existence 
and  pay  the  interest  on  the  mortgage.  Fred  Slaver  owns  the 
mortgage,  together  with  the  willow  which  he  buys  in  outlying 
counties.  The  finished  baskets  he  sells  at  wholesale  in  the 
Western  States.  The  wages  he  sets,  likewise  the  interest  on  the 
mortgage,  according  to  his  feelings.  No  labor  union  restricts 
his  lowering  of  the  wage. 

His  is  the  power  not  only  of  the  lord  of  the  manor  but,  as 
sheriff,  of  the  imperial  authority  of  the  state.  In  the  ten  years 
which  have  passed  since  the  humble  Dicker  schemed  a  way 
around  the  constitution  and  died  in  the  effort,  Fred  Slaver  has 
drawn  the  political  lines  so  close  that  the  whole  country  found 
necessary  a  recognition  of  his  zeal.  Sheriff  of  Onondaga 
County,  hail !  Elected  by  the  will  of  the  Sovereign  People,  while 
receipts  for  his  sovereigns  are  carefully  filed  away  in  his  fire- 
proof safe.  These  receipts  for  votes  bought  and  delivered,  you 
may  see  if  some  night  you  are  alone  with  Slaver,  but  alone  you 
must  be,  for  he  will  assure  you,  while  they  are  spread  out  before 
you  and  you  touch  them  with  your  hand,  that  in  fact  you  do  not 
see  them,  and  that  if  you  testify  in  court  he  will  swear  you  have 
not  seen  them — such  is  his  assurance  of  himself.    Now  not  only 


THE   SLAVER.  I5 

little  Liverpool  does  him  homage,  but  behind  his  big  roll-top  desk 
in  his  handsome  office  in  the  county  buildings  at  Syracuse,  he  is 
able  to  look  the  world  in  the  face  and  with  pride  tell  you  how  his 
fellow  citizens  worship  and  obey  him.  On  his  breast  shines  the 
sheriff's  golden  shield  with  its  one  solitaire,  presented  amid  the 
flowing  bowl  on  a  star-light  night  of  April  in  the  little  saloon  in 
Liverpool,  down  where  the  brothern  spat  upon  the  stove  and 
dared  to  appoint  a  town  president  to  investigate  him.  Should  the 
dazzle  of  the  diamond  divert  your  attention  from  his  open  face 
and  you  forget  yourself  enough  to  ask  by  what  legal  authority 
he  acts  as  Agent  for  the  towm  of  Salina  and  pockets  the  profit, 
he'll  tell  you  plainy,  "Now  if  I've  done  anything  wrong  I'm  will- 
ing to  do  my  time — if  you  can  get  any  jury  to  convict  me.  Of 
course  I  make  the  profits — what  do  you  think  I'm  in  business  for, 
my  health?  When  I  got  to  be  sheriff  I  just  got  my  brother 
Alfred  into  the  business  and  they  call  him  agent,  but  yet  you 
know  it's  my  business,  Slaver  &  Co.,  that's  me;  and  just  think 
of  those  folks  out  in  Liverpool;  they  just  worship  me;  they'd 
starve  if  I  left  'em.  See  here's  a  petition;  they  all  signed  it. 
They're  not  fools  enough  to  cross  me.  I'm  all  one  with  them, 
just  Fred  with  the  whole  bunch."  Such  is  the  talk  which  more 
than  one  investigator  sent  from  Albany  as  a  result  of  the  charges 
made  by  the  one  fool  insurgent  has  listened  to  and  all  of  them 
enjoy  it  along  with  the  cigars  and  easy-backed  chairs  for  in  truth 
— Fred  is  a  jolly  good  fellow. 

"The  work  at  the  penitentiary,  Lord  bless  my  soul !  of  course 
you  can  see  it  and  do  some  of  it  too,  if  we  run  short  of  a  supply. 
Just  tell  Makhell  that  Fred  said  so,  that's  enough."  What  better 
authority  can  you  ask  for  an  investigation  of  the  penitentiary 
than  that  Fred  Slaver  said  so.  Set  Hke  a  monastery  on  a  hill,  the 
Onondaga  Penitentiary  welcomes  its  visitors  with  the  announce- 
ment in  big  letters  on  a  placard :  "Admission  25  cents  for 
adults — 15  cents  for  children,"  yet  the  visitor  must  not  take  this 
as  applying  to  everybody  alike — convicts  pay  different  rates. 
Little  George,  a  convict,  fourteen  years  old  despite  his  innocent 
face  and  lisping  voice,  had  to  take  twenty-eight  cents  to  get  in. 
The  justice  couldn't  have  taken  him  for  an  adult  and  probably 


l6  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

hadn't  even  seen  the  sign,  but  then  the  boy  was  too  frightened 
to  tell  his  age  and  the  justice  poor  at  guessing — justice  is  said  to 
be  blind.  Now  the  sign  gives  no  idea  of  what  you  will  find  in- 
side ;  small  George  hadn't  any  idea  either.  He  was  going  down 
street  with  a  big  fellow  one  morning  and  the  big  fellow  as 
George  expresses  it  "happened  to  see  the  money  lying  on  the 
top  of  a  milk  bottle  and  just  took  it;  then  we  got  pinched.  We 
only  took  twenty-eight  cents,  me  and  him,  but  we  both  got  in 
here."  The  one  good  thing  about  the  inside  is  that  George  gets 
the  milk  now  that  he  didn't  get  that  morning  on  the  outside.  You 
see  the  warden  says  he's  too  young  to  chew  tobacco  and  he 
takes  his  out  in  milk — a  bit  of  emotional  kindness  on  the  warden's 
part  which  has  distinguished  him  in  absent-minded  moments. 
Besides  this  milk,  young  George  gets  a  full  supply  of  all  the 
microbes,  both  mental  and  physical,  which  naturally  drift  round 
in  an  atmosphere  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  bums,  white  and  black, 
red-nosed  and  sallow,  epileptic  and  insane.  When  out  of  his 
cell  which  is  modern  and  as  model  as  anything  as  barbarous  as 
a  cell  can  be,  George  sits  with  the  men  in  one  of  the  long  rows 
in  the  workshop,  stripping,  stripping,  stripping  with  a  pile  of 
willow  before  him,  his  nimble  fingers  breaking  the  coating  from 
off  the  willow  with  great  rapidity,  while  in  a  low  voice  he  asks 
the  ways  of  the  wise  from  a  companion  who  has  just  returned 
for  the  tenth  time.  The  big  hall  smells  of  wet  and  drying  willow 
which  is  a  great  improvement  over  the  smell  of  human  beings 
which  it  drowns  out.  In  the  corner  there  is  a  long  line  of  men 
sitting  with  lather  on  their  faces,  a  proposition  George  is  too 
young  to  enjoy.  Out  of  the  same  mug,  with  the  same  brush, 
the  lather  is  spattered  by  one  convict  upon  the  face  of  another, 
often  in  his  mouth,  while  an  ugly  looking  fellow  with  a  shavy 
head  follows  round  with  a  big  razor  and  a  basin.  Thus  the 
monotony  of  the  day  is  broken  for  all  save  George  and  a  dozen 
more  who  approach  somewhat  nearer  to  his  tender  years.  George 
gets  his  milk  from  the  state,  his  clothes  are  likewise  of  the  gray 
shaggy  material  bought  in  quantities  by  the  state,  his  food  is 
supplied,  his  life  ordered — everything  save  a  wholesome  environ- 
ment is  provided  by  the    state.     His    poor    mother    and    little 


THE   SLAVER.  17 

brothers  are  in  need  of  his  wages ;  how  fortunate  it  is  that  during 
the  long  hours  of  the  day  he  can  work  and  send  them  aid !  "War- 
den, how  much  does  this  boy  send  his  family  a  week?" 
"Nothing!"  "Do  you  allow  him  to  waste  it?"  "No  wages,  then 
the  state  gets  the  profit?"  "You  say  it  costs  more  to  keep  these 
chaps  clothed  and  fed  and  the  prison  run  than  you  can  get  for 
their  labor,  working  long  hours.  Who  makes  the  profit  then?" 
"You  have  a  contractor,  Fred  Slaver,  eh?  It  is  natural  you 
don't  know  what  he  makes — Slaver's  a  good  business  man.  Let's 
see  the  contract ;  maybe  it  will  say  something  about  the  poor — I 
think  George's  mother  must  be  poor." 

The  warden  and  his  staff  are  business-like  and  exact,  con- 
tracts filed,  receipts  and  vouchers  saved.  In  due  and  legal  form 
the  contract  between  Fred  Slaver  and  the  Onondaga  Peniten- 
tiary sells  the  labor  of  the  convicts  through  the  working  hours  of 
the  day  at  the  rate  of  $9.00  for  each  carload  of  willow  stripped. 
It  was  this  contract  against  which  complaint  was  lodged  with 
the  governor  and  the  state  officials ;  it  was  this  contract  that  was 
exhibited  with  the  consent  of  the  honorable  Fred  when  one  after 
another  the  official  investigators  began  to  dig  and  delve  into  the 
question  why  George  wasn't  making  his  keep  and  his  mother 
and  brothers  were  left  destitute  while  he  was  at  work  on  willow, 
while  in  the  town  of  SaUna  men,  women  and  children  worked  at 
starvation  wages  and  many  a  stripper  went  without  work  alto- 
gether. 

The  contract  was  said  to  be  in  violation  of  the  constitution. 
The  attorney  general  asked  for  sworn  testimony.  In  the  hearings 
that  followed  this  request  there  gathered  together  in  the  court 
house  at  Syracuse  all  the  factors  in  this  picturesque  little  drama 
— all  except  George ;  he  wasn't  asked.  About  the  long  table  were 
grouped  the  attorneys  for  the  town  and  county,  the  counsels  for 
the  sheriff  and  the  inquisitors,  the  officers  of  the  penitentiary  and 
the  quaint  long-bearded  old  fellows  who  are  the  officers  of  the 
town.  When  all  had  been  heard,  by  a  chance  some  pencil  marks 
on  the  bills  of  payment  were  noticed.  The  inquisitor  shot  one 
question  after  another,  finally  out  of  a  pocket  of  the  warden's 
coat  was  drawn  a  little  slip  of  paper  on  which  were  written  a  few 


l8  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

clear  lines  providing  that  one-third  of  the  amount  paid  to  the 
Slate  by  Fred  Slaver  be  returned  to  him  as  rebate.  The  coun- 
sels grew  red  in  the  face,  the  sage  attorneys  walked  the  floor,  the 
old  villagers  coughed  and  looked  at  each  other — still  Fred  Slaver 
was  not  abashed :  master  of  the  situation  as  he  had  always  been 
he  answered  questions  put  to  him  to  the  last,  and  head  in  air 
walked  out  of  the  room  with  a  smile  which  signified  what  he  had 
said  so  many  times  "If  I'm  guilty,  I'll  do  my  time — that  is  if 
there's  a  jury  in  Onondaga  County  that  will  indict  me." 

Beyond  the  court  house  the  news  has  spread,  yet  still  the 
people  in  the  town  of  Salina  are  working  their  lives  out  for 
Sheriff  Slaver  and  the  boys  at  the  penitentiary  like  George  are 
without  hope  of  reward  either  for  themselves  or  their  families 
for  they  are  still  within  the  clutches  of  a  man  named  Slaver. 
The  end  is  near;  all  Onondaga  is  excited.  The  jolly  faced  lord 
of  Salina  has  made  good  his  boast — no  jury  need  indict  him — for 
the  Governor  has  assumed  jurisdiction  and  proved  that  justice 
can  prevail  even  in  a  political  division  of  the  Empire  State  of 
New  York. 

'The  Hearing  at  the  request  of  Governor  Dix  before  Judge  DeAngeles 
of  the  Supreme  Court  revealed  the  sworn  testimony  of  which  this  account 
is  but  a  connected  narration.  Mr.  Alfred  Merrill,  Deputy-attorney  General 
of  New  York  State,  to  whom  credit  is  due  for  the  strong  presentation 
of  the  case  of  the  people  which  led  to  the  Sheriff's  removal  by  Governor 
Dix  on  Feb.  8th,  1912,  is  authority  for  the  accuracy  of  the  presentation 
of  facts.    Names  are  changed  to  conform  to  the  policy  of  the  book. 


CHAPTER  III. 
CONTROL. 

The  control  exercised  by  the  state — party  politics  directly  affect  the 
control — personal  element  must  give  way  to  administrative  machinery. 
Popular  control  lacking.  Powders  of  supervision  and  control — three  kinds. 
Development  of  the  central  board  and  the  position  of  warden  the  sign 
of  progress.  Power  of  the  warden — limitations  by  contractual  relations — 
warden  a  czar — may  nullify  orders  of  chaplain  or  doctor — warden  lives 
upon  the  institution — supreme  paternalism — requires  an  educator  rather 
than  a  politician  or  moralist.  Reform  in  centralized  authority — responsi- 
bility definitely  located. 

County  and  municipal  penal  institutions  outside  of  centralized  control. 
Practical  constructive  scheme  coordinate  with  the  state  system. 

The  general  control  exercised  by  the  state  over  its  con- 
vict slaves  is  a  matter  which  the  framers  of  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States  left  to  the  states  themselves  and  is  regulated 
by  state  constitutions  and  legislative  enactment.  The  adminis- 
trative machinery  through  which  this  control  is  exercised  differs 
in  each  of  the  states,  following  in  the  most  part  local  conditions 
and  local  customs.  While  these  differences  prevail  the  compari- 
son of  one  state  with  another  regarding  the  efficiency  of  manage- 
ment is  well-nigh  impossible,  yet  we  may  generalize  in  several 
p.articulars  in  a  way  that  will  not  be  untrue  to  the  facts  in  any 
particular  case. 

That  party  politics  directly  affect  the  control  of  the  convict 
laborer  to-day  is  one  of  the  generalizations  which  can  be  deduced 
from  a  careful  study  of  the  different  methods  involved  in  the 
different  states.  The  governor  bears  the  direct  responsibility 
for  control  in  forty-five  states ;  out  of  these  he  appoints  the 
board  which  controls  in  thirty-five  states,  and  is  a  member  in 
eighteen  states.  Officers  appointed  by  him  upon  such  commis- 
sions as  the  railroad  commission,  or  as  commissioner  of  agri- 
culture, or  of  public  buildings  and  institutions,  serve  on  twelve 
boards.  The  senate  must  pass  upon  his  appointments  in  seven- 
teen states,  but  this  limitation  in  most  cases  affects  more  vitally 
the  personal  action  of  the  governor  than  the  dictates  of  party. 
Members    of    the    council,    the    secretary    of     state,     treasurer 


20 


PENAL    SERVITUDE. 


State  Control  of  Prison  Labor* 


Derivation  of 
Power 

Manner  of  Selection 

of  Board                     .  m  j  ^. 

Ida. 
111. 
Ind. 
lowa. 

09       . 

cd   o  ^     o  'O  i 

S 

s 

i 

Governor _ 

Governor,  ex-offlcio 1  1-. 

By  direct  appointment 3  1  —  5 

By  indirect  appointment *1 .- 

1..-  1  !.._ 

4  7 ~. 

ti ....    U .- 

1 ] 

....  9113.- 
§4 ... 

_....  Illx. 

3.-.  3  #3  9x 
.-..- 9*. 

5 1  "5 

1 
i3 

_. 

1 

As  Secretary  of  State - 1  -. 

Ap  Treasurer 

1... 

1 -...- 

.-- M 

.„ Mix.. 

1 

1 
1 

1 

Council 

As  Attorney  General.           1.... 

As  Auditor— _ _  1  l.._. 

By  consent X 

- 11  Ix- 

_.  lllx.. 

1 

1 

#X._.3 

L 

- 

__ 

Senate..— 

By  consent -    ...     _   .    ._ X: 

K.X 

._.X 

X-X 

.-X 

.... 

._ 

.„ 

Assembly- 

By  nomination  and  election  _ _. . 

.-..- 1 

....  3      .- 

- 

People . 

By  dirpct  vote             .    

- 3 

6  7   16  3 

3  9^2 

Q     q     0        513 

3  3  5 

5 

3 

Total  Niimber  of  Board...  _ _    3  3  5  5 

3 

•  Commissioner  of  Mines,  Manufactures  and  Agriculture. 

t  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities. 

t  Commissioner  of  Agricultural. 

II  Board  of  Penitentiary.    §  Board  of  Reformatory. 

1  Supervision.    #  Inspection. 

X  Board  of  House  of  Correction.   •  Board  of  Penitantiary. 

A  Railroad  Commissioners. 


CONTROL. 


21 


State  Control  of  Prison  Labor^ 


Derivation  of 
Power 

Manner  of  Selection 
of  Board 

J2 

1 
1- 

1 

«  ■ 
zz 

1  1 

1  1 
-  1 
1  1 
-.  1 

iz; 

1 

t3 

1 

iz; 

•a 

o 

o 

2 
0 

ca 
M 
0 

£ 
0 

PL4 

M 
Pi 

CO 

IS 

Q 
03 

i 

K 

IS 

a 

> 

CO 
> 

• 

t 

Governor — 

Governor,  ex-oflaclo  _.  . 

By  direct  appointment— — 

By  indirect  appointment - 

"5 

m 

"5 

3 

■4 

1 
ill 

1 

10 

~9 

1 

1 

1 

3 

1 
§1 

1 

"5 

1 
11 

5 

1 

1 

As  Secretary  of  State.-    — 

As  Treasurer— _. 

As  Attorney  General —      

As  Auditor..- _ 

— 

._. 

.... 

— 

1 

— 

.-. 

_. 

~ 

._ 

-.. 

I 

- 

1 

1 

Council    . ... 

„ 

X 

•- 

I 

I 

z 

I 

- 



- 

I 

X 

~ 

I 

.._ 

— 

1 

Senate 

By  consent 

— 

— 

X 

- 

..- 

- 

X 

- 

•- 

._. 

X 

.... 

X 

- 

X 

- 

X 

X 



X 

X 

X 

- 

Assembly 

By  nomination  and  election.   . 

•-■ 

- 

.... 

- 

- 

•- 

_. 

5 

- 

People 

T^y  direct  vote 

3 

1 

3 

5 

3 

5 

5 

5 

5 

4 

V 

5 

5 

3 

4 

X 

5 
5 

9 

6 

3 

3 

Total  Ntimber  of  Board - 

5 

11 

5 

•  Commissioner  of  Public  Lands  and  Buildings. 

t  Commissioner  of  Charities  and  Correction.  Warden  State  Prison,  and  Superintend  Reformatory. 

X  Board  of  Classification. 

II  President  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture. 

X  Board  of  Eastern  Penitentiary;  Board  of  Western  Penitentiary. 

\  Board  of  Corrections. 

1  Commissioner  of  Public  Institutions. 

i  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  and  Warden  of  the  Prison. 


22  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

attorney-general,  and  auditor,  are  represented  in  fourteen  other 
states,  while  five  states  require  the  council's  consent  to  the  gov- 
ernor's appointment.  Finally  the  assembly,  or  rather  the  ma- 
jority of  the  assembly,  appoints  the  members  of  the  board  in  Ken- 
tucky and  South  Carolina,  and  the  people  at  general  elections  elect 
them  in  Georgia.  The  restriction  upon  this  exhibit  of  methods  of 
partisan  political  appointment  is  found  in  the  requirement  in 
four  states  that  bi-partisan  boards  be  appointed — a  supposed 
remedy,  which,  in  fact,  simply  ensures  the  perpetuation  of  the 
professional  politician  to  the  exclusion  of  political  and  social 
reform  of  all  types.  Where,  through  the  wise  exertion  of  execu- 
tive power,  the  controlling  of  the  penal  institutions  has  been 
taken  entirely  out  of  politics  by  the  appointment  of  men  whose 
sole  interest  is  the  perfection  of  administration  rather  than  parti- 
san advantage,  a  control  of  a  superior  type  has  been  possible, 
but  such  appointments  are  necessarily  of  short  duration  when 
the  spoilsman  retains  a  legislative  guarantee  for  the  perpetuation 
of  a  partisan  system.  How  to  lift  this  control  from  out  of  the 
grasp  of  the  spoilsman  will  be  considered  later,  suffice  it  here  to 
state  that  through  politics,  and  through  politics  alone,  can  any 
change  in  the  policy  of  control  of  convicts  to-day  be  attained. 
Upon  what  elected  representative  of  partisan  interests  the  re- 
sponsibility rests  in  the  different  states  is  shown  in  the  diagram 
on  pages  20-21. 

A  second  generalization  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  while 
in  sparsely  settled  communities  like  Oregon  the  governor  can 
give  his  personal  attention  to  the  supervision  of  prisons  and 
control  of  the  prisoner,  as  the  duties  of  the  governor  increase 
with  the  increase  of  population,  he  tends  to  delegate  this  power 
at  first  to  inspectors  who  work  directly  under  him,  then  to  boards 
over  which  he  is  a  nominal  head,  and  finally  to  boards  which  act 
independently  of  him.  Thus  it  seems  that  the  personal  element 
must  give  way  in  more  densely  settled  communities  to  adminis- 
trative machinery. 

Popular  control  in  counter-distinction  to  political  control  is 
utterly  lacking  in  connection  with  the  administrative  machinery 
of  our  penal  system.  While  Georgia  elects  its  prison  commis- 
sioners once  in  six  years,  there  are  few  persons  cognizant  with 


CONTROL.  23 

the  political  history  of  the  state  who  would  contend  that 
commissioners  elected  on  a  long  ballot  would  be  directly  respon- 
sive to  the  popular  will.  The  movement  to  secure  the  popular 
will  in  connection  with  judges,  known  as  the  recall,  finds  no 
counterpart  in  connection  with  the  administration  of  that  second 
half  of  justice,  the  punishment  of  crime,  and  regarding  the  ad- 
ministration of  which  there  is  scandal  heaped  upon  scandal. 

The  powers  of  supervision  and  control  that  may  be  exercised 
over  the  different  institutions  and  their  official  heads  are  of  three 
kinds — inspectors,  supervisors  and  boards  of  control.^  The  first 
group  investigates  and  reports ;  the  second  investigates  and  makes 
suggestions ;  the  third  manages.  These  three  types  vary  in  pro- 
portion to  the  policy  of  centralization  or  decentralization  prevail- 
ing in  the  state — the  extreme  type  of  centralization  being  found 
in  the  extension  of  the  powers  of  the  board  of  control  over  not 
only  the  penal,  but  the  charitable  and  other  eleemosynary  insti- 
tutions both  of  the  state  and  the  subdivisions  of  the  state,  to 
which  are  added  the  powers  of  audit  and  supervision  over  the 
buyers  for  all  the  state,  county  and  municipal  departments. 

As  the  administration  and  control  departs  from  this  central- 
ized type  of  organization,  the  power  of  the  warden  and  head  of 
the  institution  increases  in  proportion  in  relation  to  the  state 
and  most  often  decreases  in  proportion  in  regard  to  actual 
responsibiliy  for  the  convicts.  We  have  already  noted  the  de- 
velopment of  the  position  of  warden  from  that  of  an  individual 
manufacturer  or  his  employee  to  that  of  a  state  official,  and  have 
noted  the  growth  of  this  tendency  in  response  to  the  growth  of 
state  control — such  development  on  the  part  of  the  central  board 
and  the  position  of  warden  seems  therefore  to  be  the  sign  of  pro- 
gress. 

The  pozver  of  the  warden  is  hedged  about  by  the  powers  of 
the  board  that  is  over  him  and  the  limitations  placed  upon  him 
by  contractual  relations  with  individuals  who  have  hired  the 
use  of  his  convicts  together  with  buildings  and  appurtenances. 
The  legislatures  of  some  states  have  in  specific  instances  given 
him  definite  powers  and  placed  limitations  upon  him  regarding 

'Fetter,    Frank    A.,    "State    Supervision     and     Control,"     Proceedings 
National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,   1909,  p.  307. 


24  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

punishment/  the  use  of  the  institution  moneys,"  the  type  of  assist- 
ants appointed,^  and  his  participation  in  the  profits  of  corpora- 
tions dealing  with  the  institution.  Such  restrictions  are  excep- 
tional and  in  most  cases  the  common  law  of  public  officers  has 
but  few  limitations.  The  usual  policy  of  the  board  of  control 
is  to  select  a  man  in  whom  it  has  confidence  and  then  hold 
him  responsible  for  the  institution  and  make  only  such  regula- 
tions for  his  conduct  as  meet  with  his  own  approval  or  are 
instituted  at  his  suggestion.  Then  the  warden,  or  superintendent, 
within  the  confines  of  his  prison  is  a  czar,  his  word  is  law,  his 
will  is  supreme.  Toward  his  subordinates  he  has  a  position 
similar  to  that  of  the  captain  of  a  ship;  he  can  require  of  them 
what  is  necessary  for  the  safety  of  the  institution,  and  in  the  car- 
rying out  of  those  regulations  which  he  thinks  necessary  toward 
that  end  he  can  command  the  close  co-operation  of  the  chaplain 
and  doctor,  spiritual  and  medical  officers  of  the  institution,  or  he 
can  nullify  their  orders  and  restrict  their  activity  to  conform 
to  his  own  policy.  The  zvarden  lives  upon  the  institution,  his 
personal  wants  are  first  to  be  satisfied;  he  usually  has  the  use  of 
a  beautiful  house  connected  in  some  way  with  the  enclosure; 
his  table  is  supplied  with  all  the  luxuries  of  the  season  from  the 
prison  commissary,  prepared  by  prisoners  often  under  super- 
vision of  an  accomplished  convict  chef ;  convicts  serve  his  meals 
and  attend  upon  his  wife  and  his  children,  anticipating  their  every 
want;  the  education  of  his  children  is  in  some  cases  delegated 
to  convict  tutors,  while  many  of  the  details  of  running  the 
institution  are  deputed  to  convict  clerks,  some  of  whom  have 
executive  ability  surpassing  that  of  the  warden.  All  reports  as 
to  breaches  of  discipline  and  the  work  in  the  institution  are  made 
to  the  warden  on  which  he  is  supposed  to  judge  the  prisoner, 
rewarding  or  punishing.  These  reports  form  the  basis  for  the 
prisoner's  release  under  indeterminate  sentence.  By  the  upright, 
conscientious  warden  these  judgments  are  often  based  on  personal 
knowledge  of  the  convict  with  whom  he  is  in  sympathetic  re- 

'Connecticut,  Maryland,  Massachusetts,  Kentucky,  etc. 

^Indiana,  North  Dakota,  Wisconsin,  etc. 

'North  Dakota,  Tennessee,  etc. 

^Arkansas,  California,  Colorado,  Idaho,  Nebraska,  etc. 


CONTROL.  25 

lation.  In  the  supreme  paternalis)n  which  exists  rest  infinite 
possibilities  for  the  real  education  and  development  of  the  convict 
toward  a  better  and  more  useful  life,  and  the  consummation  of 
all  the  evil  which  human  nature  can  foster  up  in  response  to  the 
brutality  of  the  tyrant.  They  are  the  ever  present  forces  exist- 
ing under  any  slave  system  in  the  relation  between  the  master 
and  the  slave.  Where  the  position  is  merely  one  of  politics,  the 
warden  becomes  a  gentleman  of  leisure,  his  routine  being  per- 
formed by  subordinates  and  the  convicts  themselves — such  a 
sinecure  is  the  easy  mark  for  the  spoilsman. 

Naturally  it  is  difficult  for  the  warden,  whether  he  be  a  bene- 
ficiary or  a  moral  leader,  to  realize  that  he  is  called  upon 
to  supervise  the  prisoner  in  his  labor.  To  develop  an  efficiently 
run  manufacturing  business  or  a  scientifically  conducted  farm, 
and  also  to  know  that  in  his  own  use  of  the  waste  products  of  the 
institution  he  is  teaching  that  supreme  lesson  necessary  for 
the  convicts'  regeneration — the  use  of  the  wasted  energies — 
requires  an  educator  rather  than  a  politician  or  a  moralist. 


Reform  in  penal  administration  today  lies  therefore  in  build- 
ing up  the  systems  of  control  more  firmly  on  a  centralised  sys- 
tem of  authority,  so  definite  in  its  form,  that  responsibility 
for  evil  doing  can  be  definitely  located,  and  which  by  some 
method  of  recall  can  be  made  to  respond  to  the  highest  stand- 
ard of  moral  action  upon  which  the  majority  of  people  in  the 
state  may  agree. 

* 

COUNTY  SUPERVISION. 

County  and  municipal  penal  institutions  have  lain  for  a  cen- 
tury outside  of  this  movement  for  centralised  control.  The  cry 
of  local  autonomy  in  the  counties  and  cities  has  forced  upon 
the  legislatures  the  granting  of  local  self  government  in  general 
terms  with  the  result  that  each  county  and  city  has  had  alike 
to  assume  the  responsibility  for  the  local  penal  system  on  the 
same  basis  as  there  was  provided  poor-relief.  The  theory  seems 
to  have  been  that  because  of  the   supposed   restriction  of  the 


26  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

county  institutions  to  short-term  cases,  they  could  be  cared  for 
under  a  less  exact  system,  similar  it  may  be  to  the  almshouse 
regulations  except  that  the  term  should  be  a  definite  incarceration. 
Historically  the  able-bodied  beggar  became  the  criminal  of  the 
misdemeanant  type;  the  rasp  houses  of  Belgium  and  Germany^ 
followed  this  idea,  the  poor-houses  of  England  for  some  cen- 
turies were  hardly  distinguishable  from  penal  institutions. - 
Where  debt  was  a  crime  and  the  insane  went  to  the  almshouse 
and  a  man's  family,  including  his  innocent  children  went  with 
him  to  the  almshouse  or  the  prison,  distinctions  were  difficult.^ 
Though  some  centuries  have  passed,  the  distinction  is  still  diffi- 
cult to  make  clear  to  the  local  authorities,  whether  boards  of 
supervisors,  sheriffs  or  local  courts,  which  control  the  destinies 
of  these  local  institutions.  While  imprisonment  for  debt  is  out- 
lawed, still  the  vagrancy  which  is  the  result  of  poverty  is  a 
crime.  Relief  from  the  town  must  be  returned  in  many  com- 
munities or  the  poorhouse  is  an  alternative,  and  release  from  the 
poorhouse  becomes  impossible  where  all  assistance  is  cut  off. 
The  withdrawal  of  the  children,  the  sick  and  the  feeble-minded 
and  insane  from  the  poorhouses  has  not  as  yet  been  entirely 
accomplished  by  the  transfer  to  proper  custodial  institutions,* 
and  the  removal  of  many  of  these  individuals  from  the  alms- 
house back  into  society  practically  necessitates  a  life  of  crime 
to  make  existence  possible.  In  some  communities  the  poorhouse 
and  the  workhouse  are  physically  one — the  inmates  of  the  poor- 
house doing  what  they  can  for  the  maintenance  of  the  institu- 
tion,^ assisted  by  the  convicts  on  the  supposition,  which  is  often 
contrary  to  fact,  that  they  are  more  able-bodied.  Commitment 
of  beggars  and  vagabonds  to  the  workhouse  to  work  off  their 
fines  may  be  justifiable  as  a  method  of  regulation  of  vagrancy, 
but  is  not  far  removed  from  the  older  form  of  imprisonment 
for  debt,  especially  where  the  dependent  members  of  the  con- 
vict's family  are  in  the  almshouse.     Is  it  to  be  wondered  that 

'Liszt,  Franz  von,  "Die  Gefangnisarbeit,"  p.  4. 

'Poor  Law  Commissioners,  "ist  Annual  Report,  1835,"  p.  30. 

'Goldsmith,  Oliver,  "Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  ch.  26. 

*Warner,  A.  G.,  "American  Charities,"  Revised  Edition,  pp.  201-5. 

^Johnson,  Alexander,  "The  Almshouse,"  pp.  74-80. 


CONTROL. 

PRISON  LABOR  CONTROL. 


COUNTY   CONVICTS. 


nOARD  OF  COUNTY  SUPERVISORS 


Arizona 
California 
Colorado 
Connecticut 
Florida 
fdaho 
'Illinois 
Indiana 


Iowa 

Kansas 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Montana 

Nebraska 


New  Hampshire 
New  Jersey 
New  Mexico 
New  York 
North    Carolina 
North  Dakota 
'Ohio 
Pennsylvania 


South  Carolina 

Texas 

Utah 

Vermont 

Virginia 

Washington 

Wyoming 


COUNTY    COURT 

Arkansas  Kentucky 

Delaware  Louisiana 

♦Illinois  Missouri 


•Ohio 
Oklahoma 
Oregon. 


Virginia 
West    Virginia 


SHERIFF 

Nevada 


South    Dakota  Tenessee. 


STATE    CONTROL 

Alabama  Maine  Wisconsin. 

Georgia  Rhode   Island 


"Statutes  permit  control  I)y  both  County  Court  or  Board  of  County  Supervisors. 


28  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

the  local  authorities,  elected  from  the  type  of  untrained  men  who 
alone  seek  those  offices,  should  be  lacking  in  their  ability  to 
solve  successfully  this  local  problem.  In  five  states  a  central 
state  authority  is  given  the  power  of  inspecting  or  supervising 
these  local  situations ;  in  the  other  forty-three  states  no  power 
outside  of  the  locality  may  intervene.  (See  Chart,  p.  27). 
That  foremost  penologists  are  demanding  that  the  state  directly 
control  these  county  institutions,  that  foreign  visitors  are  de- 
nouncing them  as  pest-holes,^  is  but  natural.  Central  authori- 
ties must  provide  a  practical  constructive  scheme  of  local  devel- 
opment co-ordinate  with  the  state  system;  then  right-minded  local 
authorities  can  be  counted  on  to  adopt  it  without  question. 

'Ruggles-Brise,  Sir  E.,  "In  these  gaols  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say 
that  many  of  the  features  linger  which  called  forth  the  wrath  and  indig- 
nation of  the  great  Howard  at  the  end  of  the  i8th  Century,"  Report  of 
the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Home  Department  on  the  Proceedings  of 
the  Eighth  International  Penitentiary  Congress,  p.  9. 


PART  III 

THE  INSTITUTION. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  LEACH. 

The  Human  Parasite  Who  Feeds  on   Parasites. 

"Hello  there,  Boss !  Great  institution  that !  Glad  to  see  you 
again,"  he  added  as  the  driver  of  the  institution's  rickety  convey- 
ance reined  up  his  horses  at  the  signal  of  my  audacious  friend ; 
a  friend  he  claimed  to  be  though  I  had  never  seen  him  before  in 
my  life;  audacious — there  was  no  doubt  of  that,  and  for  some 
cause  he  was  loquacious. 

"Can  I  ride  to  town  with  you?  I  am  an  institution  man  my- 
self. I  can  tell  you  more  about  institutions  than  would  fill  a 
book,"  and  he  was  alongside  of  me.  The  horses  started  up  of 
their  own  accord  and  we  were  ofif  to  town. 

"Experience — why  I've  worked  in  no  end  of  institutions, 
I've  worked  in  five  states.  I'm  a  wise  one  if  you  are  looking  for 
one  of  that  kind.  Well  if  you  know  your  biz  I  know  mine,  so 
there's  a  go,"  he  rejoined  as  he  followed  me  into  the  hotel  and 
up  to  my  room,  without  invitation  and  with  the  manner  of  a 
leach. 

"I  want  a  job  and  I  want  it  bad,"  and  he  w-ent  on  with  a 
story  of  how  his  wife's  brother's  children  needed  his  wife  and 
they  had  to  give  up  a  big  lunacy  job.  "What  I  want  is  a  penal 
job.  I  guess  you're  that  kind,"  looking  at  me  hopefully.  Get- 
ting an  assent  to  his  question  he  launched  out: 

"Now  we're  all  alone  I  will  talk  on  the  level.  You're  a 
practical  man  and  business  is  business.  Now,  I  don't  want  to 
make  much  and  will  put  you  in  right.  My  job  is  cook  and  I 
buy  the  stuff.  Now,  say  you  get  the  institution  to  pay  twenty- 
five  cents  a  day  keep.  I  can  feed  'em  fer  ten.  A  couple  of 
cents  apiece  is  good  enough  fer  me,  and  you  takes  the  rest — 
that's  easy.  Of  course,  it  depends  on  what  you  get — T  can 
keep  'em  fat  on  ten — I  did  that  when  I  was  down  in  Rhode 
Island.     But  maybe  you  can   only  get  eighteen — bad   business ; 


30  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

you  have  to  starve  'em  to  make  a  decent  profit,  but  I  can  keep 
'em  alive  on  four — jest  alive,  you  know.  You  have  to  keep  'em 
from  the  grump.  You  don't  think  I  can  do  it,  eh!  Well,  you 
see  I  know  the  big  grocers — they  fix  it  up  with  me.  We  arrange 
it  all  right.    You  don't  have  to  do  anything  but  o.  k.  the  bills." 

"You  would  not  o.  k.  the  bills !  Well,  you  are  a  green  one ! 
You  see  you  o.  k.  the  bills  for  the  whole  twenty-five  cents — 
that's  easy.  They  couldn't  get  at  you  fer  that.  The  goods  come 
to  me  and  I  o.  k.  'em  as  all  right — and  they  are  eat.  Who's  to 
tell  what  they  are?" 

"But  the  rake-off — you  don't  see  where  it  comes  in?  You're 
a  green  one  fer  sure.  It's  as  certain  as  day  and  legal — why, 
the  Supreme  Court  couldn't  bust  it.  Why,  them  goods  the 
grocer  people  sells  to  me  fer  a  dollar  jest  to  make  it  good — 
they're  mine.  I  sells  'em  back  to  them  and  they  sells  'em  to  the 
folks  at  the  institution — you,  you  know.  You  buys  the  stuff  all 
right.  They  pays  me  fer  the  goods  I'm  selling,  the  difference 
'twixt  what  you're  paying  and  what  they  ought'er  cost.  At  the 
end  of  the  month  I  settles  up  with  you.  You've  got  me — if  I 
don't  make  good  you  fire  me.  I  gets  my  salary  and  a  few  pick- 
ings, jolly  the  guys  in  the  kitchen  and  whistles  fer  my  living;  and 
you — well,  you're  the  swell  guy — you  looks  fine  an'  swears  it's 
all  straight  goods — so  it  is — damn'd  if  the  law  can  touch  it.  You 
tell  the  folks  it's  all  on  the  level — so  it  is,  but  the  level  slides  your 
way." 

With  the  promise  to  let  him  know  the  first  contract  I  made 
to  feed  convicts  at  twenty-five  cents  a  day  he  left  me,  remarking, 
"I'll  wait  on  you  doing  something" — and  he's  waiting  still. 


THE  EVENING  SUN,   B.4XTIMOBE. 
TUESDAY.   JANUARY  2.  1912. 


Prisoners  Eat  In  Corridors 


Picture  presented  in  the  annual  House  of  Correction  reports,  shoivinn 
(■(I ndition  condemned  hy  Dr.K.  Stauu  Wfiitin.  vho  investiuated  conditions 
(it  the  State  institution. 


CHAPTER  V. 

MAINTENANCE. 

To  maintain  the  convict  in  reasonable  health  and  safety  is  the  first 
duty  devolving  upon  the  authorities  under  whose  control  he  is  placed. 
Leasing  of  long-term  convicts  in  a  few  instances — short-term  convicts  in 
twelve  states.  Sheriff  system  universal — a  private  system  in  the  guise  of 
a  public  system.  Maintenance  labor  reduces  the  cost  of  maintenance.  The 
test  is  efficiency — standardization  of  positions  and  duties — careful  selection 
of  the  man  to  fill  the  position — incentives,  reward  and  wages — adequate 
reports  and  records.  Convict  labor  used  in  construction  work — up-keep — 
culinary  and  commissary — articles  for  use  of  institution — reclamation  of 
articles.    Band.    Library.    Bookkeeping. 

A  state  superintendent  of  prisons  in  the  state  of  New  York 
was  reappointed  to  that  position  by  the  governor,  on  account  of 
his  ability  as  an  administrator  of  the  prison  system,  proved 
by  the  undisputed  fact  that  the  maintenance  of  the  prisoners  in 
Sing  Sing  Prison  cost  the  state  less  for  the  standard  of  hving 
maintained  than  that  of  any  other  institution  in  the  country. 
The  investigation  of  the  Commissioners  to  examine  the  Depart- 
ment of  State  Prisons  caused  his  retirement  because  of  defects 
in  his  administration,  one  of  which  was  the  transfer  of  a  large 
item  from  the  Sing  Sing  maintenance  account  for  the  year  1908 — 
the  coal  account  for  $14,000.00 — to  the  separate  and  distinct 
industrial  shop  account  on  which  no  report  was  made  to  the 
governor.^  The  difference  between  efficient  administration  and 
mismanagement  was  here  a  matter  of  book-keeping,  but  in  fact 
it  is  much  more;  it  is  based  upon  a  thousand  and  one  elements 
of  which  the  public  have  today  practically  no  way  of  gaging  the 
real  value. 

To  maintain  the  convict  in  reasonable  health  and  safety  is 
the  first  duty  devolving  upon  the  authorities  under  whose  control 
he  is  placed.  The  maintaining  of  an  institution  for  prisoners, 
whether  it  be  a  bastile,  or  open  camp,  presupposes  limitations 

'Hearing  before  the  Commissioners  to  Examine  the  Department  of 
State  Prisons  at  Sing  Sing  Prison,  New  York  State,  April  13th,  191 1. 

As  reported  in  the  New  York  Herald,  April  14th,  1911. 


MAINTENANCE.  33 

regarding  the  prisoner's  egress  and  the  public's  invasion,  together 
with  sheher,  a  minimum  of  food  and  clothing.  To  supply  these, 
the  state  in  its  poverty  at  times  has  to  follow  methods  which  as 
it  grows  in  wealth  and  strength  are  superseded.  It  has  already 
been  pointed  out  (page  6)  that  there  has  been  a  growth  from 
lease  to  state  control,  from  the  contracting  out  of  the  maintenance 
to  the  state's  assumption  of  its  full  responsibility. 

The  leasing  of  long-term  convicts  has  ceased  except  in  a  feiv 
instances  in  those  Southern  states  which  have  not  entirely  recov- 
ered as  yet  from  the  reconstruction  period.     (See  map,  p.  32.) 

The  short-term  convicts  in  the  county  institutions  are  still 
susceptible  to  lease  in  twelve  states,  though  in  all  but  two  the 
civil  authorities  have  provided  civil  maintenance  instead  of  pri- 
vate maintenance  for  a  part  of  the  convict  population.  (See 
map,  p.  34.) 

The  sheriff  system  which  is  another  phase  of  the  same  propo- 
sition is  almost  universal.  The  sheriff  knows  when  he  runs  for 
office  that  he  is  entering  into  a  business  whereby  he  is  allowed 
a  certain  amount  for  maintenance  per  prisoner,  his  profit  being 
in  proportion  to  the  type  of  maintenance  he  supplies  the  prisoner. 
Here  we  actually  have  a  private  system  in  the  guise  of  a  public 
system. 

Federal  convicts  are  maintained  in  the  federal  prisons  under 
federal  control,  or  in  such  state  prisons,  penitentiaries,  reforma- 
tories, houses  of  correction,  or  jails,  as  the  state  controls  the 
convict  in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  the  Department  of  Justice. 
In  such  cases  a  compensation  is  paid  to  the  state. 

Maintenance  labor  derived  from  the  convict  is  an  item  which 
materially  reduces  the  cost  of  maintenance ;  it  is  used  in  the  up- 
keep of  the  institution,  the  preparation  and  service  of  food,  the 
manufacture  and  production  of  clothing  and  articles  for  use  in 
the  institution  and  in  the  construction  of  the  institution. 

A  comparison  of  institutions  as  to  numbers  and  percentage 
of  convicts  engaged  in  maintenance  work  could  bring  little  or  no 
result  because  of  the  dissimilarity  of  the  institutions.  The  test 
ts  not  whether  a  fourth  or  a  third  of  the  population  is  engaged 
in  this  labor,  but  whether  the  labor  so  exercised  is  used  in  such  a 


MAINTENANCE.  35 

way  as  to  produce  its  utmost  efficiency.  A  standardisation  of 
the  positions  and  duties  of  those  filling  them,  a  careful  selec- 
tion of  the  m-an  to  till  the  position  on  the  basis  of  his  special  abil- 
ity for  such  a  position,  and  the  introduction  of  machinery  for 
efficiency,  such  as  actual  machinery  in  some  places  and  in  others 
an  adequate  system  of  reports  and  records,  will  increase  the 
value  of  convict  labor  to  the  institution,  and  lessen  the  per 
capita  cost  of  maintenance.  Moreover,  the  oflfering  to  this  type 
of  labor  the  same  legitimate  incentives  in  the  way  of  reward 
and  wages  as  are  given  to  the  man  who  is  engaged  in  general 
production  for  the  institution,  together  with  the  suppression  of 
filching  and  purloining  in  kitchen  and  storehouse,  will  decrease 
the  need  of  guards  and  aid  in  the  proper  education  of  the  con- 
vict to  a  recognition  of  law,  order  and  thrift,  which  is  essential 
to  his  reformation. 

Convict  labor  has  been  used  successfully  in  practically  every 
type  of  construction  work  necessary  to  the  building  of  the  penal 
institution,  from  pitching  a  road  tent  in  Colorado  to  the  carv- 
ing of  the  figures  on  the  front  of  the  administrative  building  of 
the  Federal  Prison  at  Atlanta.  It  is  impossible  to  isolate  con- 
struction from  maintenance  work  in  a  discussion  of  prison  labor : 
they  are  both  for  the  maintaining  of  the  prisoners,  though  ap- 
propriations are  usually  separate.  The  ingenuity  of  the  prison 
warden  who  makes  use  of  the  labor  of  his  wards  in  turning  to  ac- 
count even  waste  materials  has  resulted  in  the  erection  of  many 
fine  institutions  at  an  actual  cost  to  the  state  of  remarkably 
small  sums  of  money.^  The  fact  that  many  of  the  convicted 
men  have  had  mechanical  training  adds  another  element.  A 
chance  to  express  their  ingenuity  on  the  mechanical  problems 
of  the  construction  of  an  institution  supplies  a  legitimate,  ade- 
quate outlet  for  their  pent-up  energies,  which  is  advantageous 
both  to  them  and  to  the  institution.  The  use  of  the  convict  in 
building  the  institution  has  been  opposed  by  contractors  and 
their  friends  upon  boards  of  control  since  the  days  when  the 

'An  instance  of  this  is  found  at  Green  Bay,  Wisconsin,  where  an 
institution  containing  auditorium,  gymnasium,  spacious  dining-room, 
numerous  class-rooms  and  a  beautiful  swimming-pool  has  been  con- 
structed out  of  an  appropriation  less  than  is  ordinarily  made  for  a 
small  jail. 


36  PENAL   SERVITUDE, 

construction  of  prisons  was  first  undertaken,  as  it  prevents  the 
contractor  from  bringing  his  own  force  of  men  and  deprives 
him  of  just  so  much  opportunity  for  profit.  There  are  but  few 
instances  on  record  where  the  labor  unions  have  demanded  this 
prison  construction  work  for  free  labor  and  then  it  has  actually 
been  the  influence  of  the  contractor,  working  through  the  local 
vmion/  The  complaint  that  convict  labor  is  inefficient  and  un- 
able to  do  the  type  of  work  required  is  very  often  due  to  a  lack 
of  ingenuity  on  the  part  of  the  warden  in  not  assigning  men  to 
occupations  for  which  they  are  suited  by  training  and  experi- 
ence. Where  specially  skilled  labor  is  necessary,  free  labor 
can  always  be  secured  and  skilled  free  labor  has  no  more  objec- 
tion to  using  the  convict  as  a  beast  of  burden  than  to  using  the 
free  "dago"  hodcarrier.^  Work  upon  the  construction  of  the 
institution  is  the  most  natural  and  logical  proposition  for  employ- 
ment of  convicts. 

The  up-kecp  of  any  institution  is  a  big  factor  in  administra- 
tion. The  daily  cleaning  and  repair  work,  together  with  the 
running  of  heating  and  power  plants,  ventilating  systems,  the 
tidying  up  of  the  grounds  and  the  care  of  the  sick  or  disabled, 
all  require  the  time  of  some  convicts  who  might  otherwise  be 
employed  on  other  labor.  The  policy  of  some  penal  institu- 
tions is  for  each  convict  to  take  care  of  his  own  room,  though 
special  men  are  usually  assigned  to  take  charge  of  the  cell-houses. 
Where  other  labor  has  not  been  found  for  the  men  in  the  insti- 
tution the  number  employed  in  this  way  is  numerous  and  sug- 
gests favoritism,  as  they  have  the  run  of  the  building  and  oppor- 

'In  California  a  walking  delegate  who  in  no  way  represented  in  his 
actions  the  sentiment  of  the  California  Federation  of  Labor  ordered 
union  pile-drivers  off  a  construction  job  on  a  California  prison  because 
convicts  were  hauling  the  logs.  His  orders  prevailed  despite  the  protest 
of  the  union  men.  The  completion  of  the  work  being  imperative,  the 
warden  called  for  volunteers  among  the  convicts.  When  the  delegate 
called  again  at  the  prison  he  found  the  work  completed  and  learned  that 
the  convict  pile-drivers  had  finished  it  in  short  order,  having  made  the 
pile-driving  machine  drive  forty-five  piles  a  day  where  the  union  men 
had  averaged  eighteen. 

^Minneapolis  City  Workhouse  has  had  its  convicts  handing  brick  to 
the  masons  at  work  on  the  city  hospital. 

^At  the  present  time  this  is  the  only  type  of  work  in  vogue  in  federal 
prisons;  therefore  the  labor  in  these  prisons  will  not  be  discussed  in  the 
later  chapters  on  Production  and  Distribution  of  Commodities. 


MAINTENANCE.  37 

tunities  for  social  intercourse  with  the  minimum  of  actual  labor. 
The  fear  of  allowing  the  convicts  razors  in  their  cells  makes  the 
occupation  of  barber  a  necessary  one  where  the  requirement  is 
that  the  convict  shall  be  smooth-shaven.^ 

Culinary  and  commissary  departments  require  a  consider- 
able force  of  convicts  to  man  them  properly ;  food  stuffs  have 
to  be  received,  weighed,  checked,  properly  labelled  and  stored 
beyond  the  reach  of  purloiners  of  every  kind.  The  prepara- 
tion of  food  requires  innumerable  cooks,  cleaners  and  scaven- 
gers. Despite  the  fact  that  this  labor  to  the  free  person  does 
not  seem  the  most  attractive,  it  is  in  the  penal  institution  the 
boon  given  for  good  behavior  or  as  recognition  of  social  or 
political  priority  according  to  the  standards  of  the  outer  world. 
Those  employed  in  this  department  either  by  stealth  or  acquies- 
cence on  the  part  of  the  management  are  nourished  by  better 
food  than  the  rest  of  the  population  of  the  institution.  The 
waiters  form  another  class  and  often  have  a  cleaner  and  more 
respectable  job;  they  are  picked  from  the  more  active  and  self- 
respecting  of  the  convicts. 

The  labor  upon  articles  for  the  use  of  the  institution  drafts 
men  from  the  population  in  proportion  to  the  facilities  which 
the  institution  offers  for  this  type  of  work.  Some  institutions 
limit  this  to  the  reclamation  of  articles  which  are  originally  pur- 
chased in  the  open  market :  this  consists  in  laundrying,  cleaning, 
repairing  and  mending.  The  laundry  work  in  many  instances 
is  done  with  all  the  approved  laundry  machinery,  such  as  man- 
gles and  dryers — men  are  used  for  the  large  part  on  it.  Mend- 
ing is  always  kept  for  the  women  provided  there  are  women  in 
the  institution.  Cleaning  and  repairing  become  adjuncts  to  the 
tailor-shop  where  the  clothes  brought  into  the  institution  by  the 
convicts  are  cleaned  and  repaired  to  be  worn  on  going  out  again 
either  by  the  owner,  if  they  are  poor  clothes,  or  by  a  more  priv- 
ileged convict  if  they  are  of  greater  value.  For  these  lines  the 
"handy-man"  is  in  demand. 

The  manufacture  of  new  clothing,  both  for  use  in  the  insti- 
tution and  for  use  upon  discharge,  is  carried  on  in  some  institu- 

'This  occupation  has  been  developed  so  far  that  at  Mansfield,  Ohio, 
a  barber  school  of  twenty-five  chairs   is  in   full  operation. 


38  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

tions  ;^  cloth  is  manufactured  especially  for  this  purpose,-  while 
cobbling'  and  knitting  often  are  made  available  in  the  produc- 
tion of  shoes  and  underwear. 

A  farm  connected  with  the  institution  and  worked  by  the 
convicts  produces  the  vegetables,  meat,  eggs  and  milk  needed 
by  the  institution.  Often  farm  utensils  are  manufactured  on 
the  premises,  farm  products  are  canned  and  hams  and  beef  are 
smoked.  Flower  culture  is  found  in  a  large  number  of  institu- 
tions and  does  much  to  beautify  the  lawns  and  add  charm  to  the 
warden's  table.  The  job  in  the  greenhouse  is  a  sinecure  which 
sometimes  is  given  a  celebrated  convict  as  a  bed  of  roses.  Some 
of  the  time  of  the  convicts  is  taken  up  in  playing  in  the  band, 
that  is  hours  of  practice  with  a  few  minutes  of  play,  and  in  the 
care  of  the  library,  or  assisting  with  the  correspondence  or  in 
running  errands.  The  bookkeeping  and  finances  of  the  insti- 
tution keep  a  whole  corps  of  clerks  busy  and  usually  claim  the 
best  educated  for  that  service.  Where  education  is  at  all  devel- 
oped, not  only  is  some  of  the  time  of  all  the  convicts  devoted  to 
attendance  in  school,  but  educated  convicts  do  the  teaching.^ 


To  maintain  the  penal  institution,  efficiency  in  management 
and  in  the  distribution  of  convict  labor  should  be  so  thoroughly 
developed  that  the  prison  will  be  the  example  to  custodial  in- 
stitutions of  other  types  of  the  greatest  possible  co-ordination 
between  the  needs  of  the  institution  and  the  activities  of  its 
inmates. 

'A  tailor  shop  is  conducted  in  all  the  state  prisons  in  New  York 
State  where  are  manufactured  prison  clothes  and  business  suits  and 
overcoats   for  discharged  convicts. 

^Auburn  Prison,   New  York   State. 

°The  most  dignified  teacher  I  have  ever  seen  was  an  incarcerated 
judge  who  with  fitting  grace  guided  the  uncultured  minds  of  his  con- 
vict class  through  the  history  of  the  founding  of  the  Republic. 


PART  IV 

EMPLOYMENT. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  REFORMER. 

To  make  a  vagrant  efficient  is  more  praiseworthy  than  to  make  two 
blades  of  grass  grow  where  one  grew  before. 

I 

"Politics  are  out  of  it  as  far  as  the  Workhouse  goes,"  re- 
marked a  policeman  glibly  as  I  stood  on  the  corner  waiting  for  a 
car  to  take  me  out  to  the  Workhouse,  "The  Parole  Board  is 
politics,  the  State  Prisons  and  Reformatories  are  politics,  the 
Police  Force  is  politics — but  say,  that  Workhouse,  they  don't  dare 
touch  it — the  people  won't  stand  for  it."  Local  policemen  usually 
have  the  best  line  on  the  real  conditions  in  a  community,  and 
these  remarks  quickened  my  desire  to  see  the  institution. 

As  I  crossed  the  Market  Square  and  discerned  the  dingy 
old  Workhouse,  set  back  from  the  street,  I  could  not  imagine 
how  such  buildings  could  have  virtue  in  them.  The  offices  pre- 
sented the  general  appearance  of  those  of  a  firm  that  had  been 
incorporated  fifty  years  before  and  had  not  moved — the  board 
room  on  one  side,  with  the  usual  chromos  of  deceased  directors 
of  the  institution,  and  the  little  business  office  with  its  high 
desk  for  bookkeepers,  its  time  clock,  and  disarranged  books  and 
reports  on  desks  and  tables. 

"Yes,  the  warden  will  see  visitors,"  said  the  clerk,  "but  he 
is  a  very  busy  man."  Soon  there  came  into  the  room  a  man  of 
middle  age  who  in  a  quiet  voice  gave  orders  about  supplies,  get- 
ting out  a  notice  to  customers,  telling  Mrs.  Brown  her  boy  was 
all  right,  and  then  sat  down  at  a  table  to  en  passant  dictate 
letters  and  vise  a  dozen  bills  he  had  in  his  hand.  Having 
caught  his  breath,  he  half  turned  round  and  remarked,  "You 
want  to  see  our  prison?  Well,  we're  always  glad  to  show  it  to 
anybody  who  is  really  interested,  provided  they'll  come  around 
on  my  usual  tour — I'm  too  busy  for  frills  around  here.  I'm 
running  quite  a  business  establishment,  as  I  presume  you  see ; 
nothing  secret  around  here — there  isn't  room  for  that  kind  of 
business."    Soon  we  headed  down  the  corridor  where  everything 


40  PENAL   SERVITUDE, 

was  as  clean  as  paint  could  make  old  boards,  and  crossed  the 
centre  yard  which  was  surrounded  by  old  buildings  some  of 
the  warehouse  type  and  some  with  long  windows  showing  the 
cell-house. 

"It's  my  factory  you  want  to  see,  I  suppose,"  said  the  warden, 
"and  my  men  at  work?  I  can't  claim  much  for  the  buildings  I 
inherited,  but  I've  built  up  this  business  after  some  years  of 
work  and  I  want  to  know  what  you  think  of  it."  We  entered 
the  basement  floor  of  one  of  the  buildings  and  made  our  way 
to  the  little  platform  on  which  the  guard  was  sitting.  From  this 
vantage  point  every  part  of  the  shop  was  visible,  though  the  mass 
of  leather  belts  running  to  the  lathes  and  saws  obstructed  our 
view  in  many  directions.  The  place  was  thick  with  dust  despite 
the  fans;  everywhere  men  were  busily  at  work  on  the  machines 
or  upon  side  tables,  cutting,  polishing,  fitting,  nailing  parts  of 
chairs  together — men  black  and  white,  all  sizes  and  all  ages. 

"Well,"  said  the  warden,  "these  are  my  boys — they  used  to 
call  them  bums,  but  they  don't  look  like  bums  now,  do  they  ?  You 
see,  most  of  these  men  are  thirty-day  men  in  for  breaking  the 
peace ;  some  are  here  for  a  year  but  none  for  longer.  These  are 
the  vags  you  hear  about,  not  worth  anything  in  manufactur- 
ing— oh,  no,  I  was  mistaken  myself  in  that !  You  see,  when  we 
used  to  have  United  States  prisoners  on  long  time  I  worked  them 
with  profit  and  said  this  kind  were  no  use,  but  when  they  took 
the  national  prisoners  away  I  had  to  use  these  fellows,  and  now 
I  think  they're  all  right,  just  because  I  know  how  to  handle  them 
and  nobody  troubles  me." 

"You  mean  there's  no  politics  in  this  prison?" 

"Now  friend,  how  can  there  be?  I've  run  this  prison  for 
eight  years,  turning  over  each  year  a  greater  profit  to  the  Board 
of  Aldermen,  and  as  long  as  I  show  a  profit  and  a  substantial 
one,  what  do  they  care  about  my  politics?  I  always  vote,  but  I 
never  tell  any  of  them  how  I  vote — 'tisn't  the  warden  that's 
voting.  Then  the  people  in  the  town  wouldn't  stand  for  their 
fooling.  They  know  I've  got  a  business  proposition  here  and 
it's  all  right.  We're  handling  these  convicts  in  a  way  they've 
never  been  handled  before.     We  don't  waste  much  money  on 


p-l 


THE   REFORMER.  4I 

guards,  either."  I  could  see  this,  for  there  was  only  one  g^uard 
in  the  room,  the  one  on  the  stand  where  we  were,  who  sat 
watching  the  men  at  their  work  and  signaling  them  when  they 
might  leave  their  respective  places.  On  the  floor  with  a  hun- 
dred men  were  two  instructors,  going  from  one  prisoner  to 
another,  telling  how  to  improve  the  work  and  making  sugges- 
tions. Every  man  was  working,  and  working  hard,  and  no  one 
seemed  to  observe  that  we  were  looking  on.  There  was  an  atti- 
tude on  the  part  of  the  men  of  "we're  doing  our  work,  what  are 
you  doing,"  and  despite  the  bad  physical  conditions  there  was 
a  wholesome  moral  atmosphere. 

As  the  warden  and  I  made  our  way  from  shop  to  shop  he 
called  this  man  by  name  and  the  other  fellow  came  to  him  for 
advice ;  no  one  seemed  afraid  and  everyone  had  a  smile  of  recog- 
nition. On  we  went  through  the  storage  rooms  and  packing- 
room,  climbed  the  stairs  into  the  button  factory,  then  not  in  use. 
There  we  found  two  convicts  tidying  up,  no  guards  around,  or 
W'ithin  call ;  they  were  working  diligently  and  the  warden,  seeing 
that  a  certain  barrel  was  leaking  and  out  of  place,  took  them  to 
task  for  not  observing  it  themselves  and  putting  it  right,  but 
left  them  to  carry  out  his  instructions  with  a  spirit  of  confidence 
that  they  would  do  their  best. 

"You  see  we  pay  them  wages,"  the  warden  remarked,  as  we 
passed  out  of  the  factory.  "Oh,  I  haven't  told  you  about  that. 
We  pay  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  cents  a  day  to  every  one  of 
these  men,  fifteen  to  the  month  men  and  twenty-five  to  the  fellows 
that  stay  the  year — that  is  according  to  what  they're  worth ;  the 
longer  they  stay,  the  more  they  are  worth.  They  like  the  wages  ? 
Yes  indeed,  and  it  gives  them  the  push  that  you  see  they've  got 
and  saves  all  the  punishment.  Yes,  once  in  a  while  a  man  won't 
work — maybe  once  a  month — one  man  in  five  hundred.  Well, 
I  put  him  in  a  cell,  cut  down  his  rations  and  then  go  round  and 
have  a  talk  with  him,  showing  he's  not  doing  the  fair  thing  by 
the  other  fellows  and  that  he's  losing  his  wages.  It  don't  take 
long  to  have  him  really  despise  himself  and  go  back  and  be  happy, 
and  that's  doing  pretty  well,  considering  the  type  of  convicts 
we  have — all  short-term  men,  you  know. 


42 


PENAL   SERVITUDE. 


"Then  there's  another  thing  that  appeals  to  them.  You  see 
last  year  I  got  the  Board  of  Aldermen  to  vote  $5,000  for  the 
care  of  their  families;  I'll  get  $15,000  this  year,  I'm  pretty  sure. 
I  went  through  the  prison  and  made  every  man  tell  me  whether 
he  had  anybody  dependent  on  him  or  not ;  then  I  sent  the  county 
poor-commissioner  to  investigate.  Well,  you  know  we  only 
found  thirty  families  out  of  the  whole  bunch  from  this  county, 
but  that  $5,000  came  in  pretty  handy— they  all  got  help  and 
everybody  thought  it  was  a  fine  scheme;  $15,000  next  year  will 
go  still  further,  and  you  know  that  leaves  $15,000  more  for  the 
Board  of  Aldermen  to  put  in  its  treasury.  No,  I  don't  say  much 
about  it  in  public;  you  see  the  thing  talks  for  itself — you  don't 
have  to  preach  about  it  in  this  city — the  people  know,  the  Board 
of  Aldermen  know,  and  what's  more  the  Board  of  Aldermen 
know  that  the  people  will  vote  accordingly. 

"I  haven's  shown  you  my  kids !  I  keep  them  away  from  the 
big  fellows — nothing  of  a  training  school  for  crime  around  here. 
Yes,  they're  up  in  this  building  making  brushes,"  and  there  we 
found  them — forty  boys,  isolated  entirely  from  the  rest  of  the 
establishment,  working  merrily  away  on  their  brushes  under  the 
supervision  of  an  instructor,  and,  despite  the  signs  of  weakness 
and  degeneracy  in  their  faces,  looking  very  much  the  same  as 
the  boys  in  a  manual  training  class  in  a  public  school.  "We 
take  special  care  of  the  kids,  for  we're  not  looking  for  them  to 
come  back.  I  wish  they  had  a  school  of  their  own,  but  we're 
doing  the  best  we  can  for  them." 

As  we  made  our  way  out  of  the  dingy  old  building,  the  dust 
and  noise,  I  could  not  help  feeling  that  the  man  had  a  right  to 
be  proud  of  what  had  been  accomplished  out  of  such  poor  mate- 
rial, and  yet  how  much  better  a  farm  would  have  been  than  this 
factory,  and  how  much  good  the  $15,000  given  back  to  the  city 
could  have  accomplished  if  invested  in  remodeling  the  old 
building. 

Making  my  way  to  the  station  I  saw  my  policeman  friend 
again,  and  going  over  remarked,  "Well,  Officer,  you're  right 
about  your  Workhouse — it's  without  politics  up  there,  but  aren't 


THE    REFORMER.  43 

they  paying  pretty  high  for  the  freedom  ?      Why  don't  they  give 
back  the  $15,000  they  rob  from  those  poor  devils'  wages?" 

"Well,  you  see,  Boss,  we've  got  so  many  leaks  in  the  other 
departments  and  so  much  graft  everywhere,  that  we've  got  to 
make  up  a  little  somewhere  and  get  a  little  honest  graft  out  of 
somebody,  and  them  poor  devils  is  the  easiest  to  take  it  out  of." 


The  door  of  the  prison  swung  out,  bringing  to  view  a  cross 
clean  cut  from  out  the  sod,  with  clusters  of  red  roses  trained  to 
give  it  form.  Beyond  stretched  a  field,  deep  furrowed  by  the 
plow.  Along  the  furrows  groped  a  row  of  figures  silhouetting 
themselves  against  the  red  sun-set  sky.  A  tall,  straight  leader 
with  a  gun  urged  on  their  weary  feet ;  their  striped  bodies  swayed 
as  they  turned  from  right  to  left,  gathering  in  the  products  of 
the  soil.  At  intervals  a  bent  form  raised  its  head  from  the  fur- 
row, straightened  its  humped  back  and  poised  as  a  man,  as  if 
to  mock  the  guard  in  his  lofty  idleness.  The  figure  of  the  guard 
relaxed,  the  gun  swayed,  rested  for  a  moment  upon  the  man, 
and  pointed  downward  till  it  dug  in  the  mire.  Crouching,  the 
man  became  an  animal  again,  the  shadow  of  the  gun  barring 
the  setting  sun  and  the  blue  sky  of  hope  beyond.  The  harsh 
voice  of  the  deputy  broke  the  silence  with  the  lament,  "That 
gang  is  dead ;  the  whites  is  worse  than  the  blacks — ^you  can't  get 
any  work  out  of  'em  and  you  darsen't  use  buckshot.  Interest 
in  the  work!  Wages  for  them  kind!  Man,  you're  crazy!" 
"Why  doesn't  he  use  a  spike  then — it's  at  least  got  a  point,"  I 
rejoined  in  derision,  but  it  was  lost  on  him  and  he  responded  with 
a  hearty  laugh,  "Why  you  know  I  never  thought  of  that.  That's 
bully — I'll  try  it  tomorrow." 


CHAPTER  VII. 
PRODUCTION  OF  COMMODITIES. 

Production  of  commodities  for  use  outside  of  the  institution.  Super- 
vision— civil  or  private.  Road  work.  Farming.  Mining — responsibility 
for  accidents.  Manufacturing — convict  as  efficient  as  the  free  man.  Busi- 
ness initiative  of  the  warden.  American  Federation  of  Labor — resolutions. 
Capital  fund — state  appropriation — "revolving  fund." 

Production  of  commodities  for  use  outside  of  the  institution 
must  be  disassociated  from  those  other  lines  of  industry 
which  we  have  discussed  under  the  head  of  maintenance. 
While  the  maintenance  work  may  and  often  should  be 
done  in  conjunction  with  and  as  a  part  of  the  larger  pro- 
duction, a  careful  distinction  should  be  made  between  them, 
both  in  the  reports  of  the  institutions  and  in  ascertaining 
the  cost  of  maintenance  and  the  cost  of  production  of  market- 
able commodities.  Where  so  many  convicts  are  leased  to  a 
contractor  that  too  few  are  left  to  do  the  baking,  repairing,  or 
developing  of  the  farm,  it  is  natural  that  the  cost  of  mainten- 
ance should  be  large  in  proportion  to  the  grade  of  care  which 
is  given  the  convict.  Where  the  contractor  leases  the  convicts 
outright  and  has  charge  of  both  maintenance  and  production,  it 
must  be  taken  into  consideration  in  the  price  per  head  at  the 
selling.  This  is  equally  true  when  a  road  commissioner  agrees 
to  pay  to  the  penal  department  a  certain  amount  for  the  use  of 
the  convicts  in  the  construction  of  roads  and  guarantees  to 
house  and  feed  them  while  the  state  guards  them.  In  each  case 
the  maintenance  end  must  be  isolated  and  not  confused  with 
the  value  secured  from  this  surplus  production  of  the  convicts. 

The  production  of  commodities  for  use  outside  the  institu- 
tion must  be  under  the  supervision  of  some  one  competent  to 
carry  on  that  work  with  efficiency  and  despatch,  to  secure  the  raw 
material  at  the  greatest  advantage  possible,  and  to  provide  for  its 
retention  till  the  process  of  manufacture  can  begin.  He  must  guide 
the  material  through  the  mechanical  and  hand  processes  with  pre- 


PRODUCTION    OF    COMMODITIES.  47 

cision  and  without  loss  of  headway  so  that  the  finished  product 
will  be  forthcoming-  in  such  perfection  that  no  complaint  of 
poor  workmanship  can  be  made  against  it.  To  secure  this  re- 
sult an  experienced  buyer  and  competent  foreman  are  necessary 
and  upon  them  must  rest  the  responsibility  primarily  for  the 
business.  Preparation  and  efficiency  are  necessary  in  the  super- 
visors of  any  productive  work ;  where  they  are  lacking-  failure 
is  sure  to  result.  This  is  true  whether  the  work  is  that  of  the 
farm,  the  coal  mine,  road  construction,  public  works  or  the  fac- 
tory. The  managing  director  of  the  enterprise  must  be  respon- 
sible for  the  profit  or  loss  incident  to  the  undertaking  and  upon 
him  in  the  last  analysis  must  come  the  responsibility  for  the 
personnel  of  the  labor  force,  though  the  narrower  selection  and 
final  assignment  may  depend  upon  the  foreman.  Whether  the 
management  should  be  in  the  hands  of  a  civil  officer,  such  as  the 
warden  or  his  representative,  or  a  private  contractor  interested 
in  the  work  for  his  own  personal  profit,  has  been  a  matter  of 
no  slight  discussion  among  theorists  and  of  radical  disagree- 
ment in  practice. 

Whether  the  management  of  the  production  shall  be  cizil  or 
private  is  a  matter  embodied  in  state  constitutions,  acts  of  legis- 
latures, resolutions  of  boards  of  control  and  contracts  between 
boards  of  control  and  individual  manufacturers.  The  matter 
is  not  one  for  arbitrary  decision  on  the  part  of  local  officials. 
Even  where  the  contracts  with  independent  firms  are  made  by 
local  authorities,  through  power  delegated  by  higher  authorities, 
the  fact  that  these  contracts  often  extend  over  a  long  series 
of  years  makes  it  impossible  to  terminate  them  until  the 
time  is  up.  The  map  on  page  46  illustrates  the  present 
status  of  state  prisons  throughout  the  United  States ;  often  both 
civil  and  private  management  are  permissible  under  law.  In 
the  map  on  page  48  the  status  of  county  institutions  is 
graphically  shown.  The  types  of  work  represented  are  manu- 
facturing, construction  work,  mining,  farm  and  road  work ;  the 
distribution  of  these  types  follows  closely  the  general  distribution 
of  free  industries.  The  type  of  convict  also  varies  and  follows 
closely  the  type  of  inhabitant  found  in  the  state.       Discussion 


PRODUCTION    OF    COMMODITIES.     .  49 

of  private  versus  civil  management  of  production  must  be  on 
the  basis  of  these  several  activities. 

ROAD     WORK. 

Road  work  is  conducted  under  state  or  county  commission- 
ers of  roads  or  under  road  contractors.  The  road  work  is  of 
such  character  that  in  most  instances  the  worker  must  be  housed 
and  fed  away  from  any  central  institution  so  that  responsi- 
bility for  maintenance  must  be  placed  upon  the  road  contractors ; 
this  presents  the  practical  difficulty  of  guarding  the  men. 
The  public  demands  protection  and  has  incarcerated  the  con- 
vict to  protect  itself.  The  opportunities  for  escape  in  road  work 
are  very  great  and  the  public  must  be  ensured  firstly  regard- 
ing its  own  safety  and  secondly  regarding  the  means  used  to  re- 
tain the  convicts,  such  as  shackles,  guns  and  dogs.  These  the 
Northern  states  will  not  tolerate;  the  Southerner  is  con- 
tent to  see  them  used  upon  the  negro,  though  he  sometimes 
balks  at  the  use  upon  the  white  man.  The  escapes  in  either  case 
depend  largely  upon  rebellion  in  the  prisoner  himself  against 
the  lot  assigned  him.  Many  convicts  feel  they  are  expiating 
their  crimes  by  service  to  the  state  against  the  laws  of  which 
they  have  sinned :  this  creates  a  feeling  of  responsibility  to  the 
state  and  at  least  an  acquiescence  in  its  decrees  regarding  them- 
selves. Where  the  work  has  no  profit  for  themselves,  the  fact 
that  it  has  profit  for  the  state  of  which  they  have  been  a  part, 
establishes  a  condition  of  mind  which  tends  to  regularity,  con- 
sistency of  work  and  a  decision  to  do  the  task  set  until  they 
have  served  their  sentence — there  are  many  exceptions  to  this 
but  they  are  few  in  the  carefully  selected  convicts  employed  on 
road  work.  On  the  other  hand  when  you  substitute  for  this 
feeling  of  duty  to  the  state,  which  is  so  closely  akin  to  the  phil- 
osophy of  the  underworld  of  "being  square  with  a  pal,"  a  rela- 
tion of  slavery  to  the  individual  master  whose  end  is  not  the 
prisoner's  good,  whose  aim  is  to  increase  his  personal  wealth, 
whose  standard  of  ethics  is  that  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest, 
and  whose  motto  is  to  grind  out  all  he  can,  you  find  that  the 


50  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

lionor  system  so  effectively  used  in  Colorado^  and  Oregon-  is  not 
practical.  The  cost  of  the  honor  system  compared  with  the 
cost  of  the  guard  system  emphasizes  imperatively  the  wasteful- 
ness of  attempting  to  build  roads  under  individual  contractors 
with  guards  when  the;  state  itself  can  compete  with  them,  use 
honor  as  the  only  chain  or  guard,  and  do  the  work  for  so  much 
less. 

FARMING. 

The  convict  farm,  after  the  exposure  of  the  many  atrocities 
incident  to  the  lease  farms,  commends  itself  as  a  civil  but  not  as 
a  private  institution.-  A  slave  system  based  upon  neither  heredi- 
tary ideas,  nor  the  family  customs  which  were  incident  to  the 
old  colored  slavery,  cannot  but  duplicate  the  horrors  of  anti- 
bellum  slavery  devoid  of  its  better  features.  Isolated  from 
civilization,  in  sparsely  settled  communities,  with  a  great  crop 
to  handle  and  a  sullen  and  defiant  type  of  labor  to  handle  it, 
with  the  fear  of  mutiny  and  the  danger  of  assassination,  is  it 
remarkable  that  the  modern  slave-driver,  who  is  managing  the 
convict  farms  for  his  own  pecuniary  benefit,  should  resort  to 
brutality  and  barbarous  practices  and  offend  the  sense  of  mod- 
ern society  by  his  actions.  How,  under  the  circumstances,  such 
a  farm  owner  could  by  methods  adopted  to  our  present  time 
and  generation  get  a  fit  return  for  his  pains  and  pay  the  state 
what  it  demands,  without  the  use  of  these  inhuman  practices, 
is  difficult  to  see.  Replace  this  farm  owner  by  a  civil  head  of 
a  great  farm  school  and  camp,  substitute  for  the  atmosphere 
of  peonage,  the  idea  of  cooperative  work,  and  you  get  those  re- 
sults so  definitely  shown  in  the  state  farms  where  the  harvest 
brings  in  ample  profit  upon  the  investment.^ 

'West,  Oswald,  "The  Problem  of  Prison  Labor,"  A  paper  prepared 
for  the  Governors'  Conference,  1911. 

'National  Immigration  Commission,  "Peonage  and  the  Treatment  and 
Conditions  of  Work  of  Immigrants,"  Report  1911,  p.  10. 

'Donaghey,  George  W.,  "When  we  took  charge  of  the  penitentiary  two 
years  ago  and  before  we  could  make  a  move  to  earn  anything  for  its 
maintenance  we  found  it  was  in  debt  in  the  sum  of  about  $130,000.  .  .  . 
The  first  year  we  bought  supplies  on  credit,  paying  what  our  creditors 
chose  to  charge  us,  and  we  not  only  paid  the  debt  to  which  we  fell  heir, 
but  made  enough  money  over  and  above  all  expenses  to  pay  $30,000  of 


PRODUCTION    OF    COMMODITIES.  5 1 


MIXING. 


The  convict  mine  presents  the  primary  difficulty  in  its  man- 
agement in  the  fact  that  there  is  inherent  in  mine  work,  and 
especially  in  coal  mining  to  which  the  use  of  the  convict  is 
restricted,  the  inevitable  danger  of  explosion  and  destruction  of 
the  mine  with  all  therein.  The  free  man  who  voluntarily,  for 
a  wage,  risks  his  life  in  the  work  of  coal  mining  must  be  pro- 
tected by  all  known  devices  which  law  can  prescribe  for  his 
protection,  but  prohibition  of  his  taking  such  risk  is  beyond 
police  power.  On  the  other  hand  to  compel  an  individual 
to  risk  his  life  in  a  coal  mine  because  he  has  been  convicted  of 
some  crime  for  which  incarceration  at  hard  labor  is  the  penalty, 
involves  the  danger  of  imposing  a  capital  sentence  in  place  of  a 
light  sentence  for  a  small,  incidental  and  statute  crime. ^  The  risk 
that  the  man  incarcerated  may  have  to  pay  unwittingly  a  pen- 
alty in  excess  of  the  court's  decree  raises  a  peculiar  situation. 
Responsibility  for  accidents  which  change  the  sentence  of  the 
courts  cannot  be  intrusted  to  private  citizens ;  the  state  alone 
should  be  responsible.-  It  is  doubtful  as  to  the  state's  right  to 
compel  this  type  of  labor  but  it  seems  likely  to  continue  for 
sometime  on  account  of  the  profit  which  the  state  can  secure 
from  the  high  productivity  of  the  comparatively  untrained  con- 
vict; moreover  it  has  practical  educational  value  for  the  convict 
who  can  find  a  ready  market  for  his  talents  in  this  direction 
upon  release  from  imprisonment.  The  fact  that  no  known 
method  can  prevent  beyond  peradventure  explosion  of  gas  in  a 
coal  mine  demands  from  the  state,  which  places  its  convict  slaves 
in  the  mine,  not  only  every  protection  known  to  science,  but 
that  by  a  direct  act  of  its  legislature  it  assume  full  liability  in 
case  of  accident.      This  protection  has  not  as  yet  been  granted 

the  State's  farm  debt,  and  turned  back  into  the  general  revenue  fund 
$50,000.  For  the  past  year  we  will  do  equally  as  well."  Message  to  the 
Legislature  of  Arkansas,  1911. 

'A  clear  expression  of  this  standpoint  was  sufficient  to  induce  the 
coal  company  responsible  for  the  coal  mine  disaster  in  which  123  con- 
victs were  killed  in  191 1  to  surrender  the  convicts  and  the  mine  to  the 
management  of  the  state. 

^Harrison,  Shelby  M.,  "A  Cash  Nexus  for  Crime,"  The  Survey,  Jan. 
6th,  1912. 


52  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

though  the  tendency  is  for  public  ownership  of  convict  coal 
mines  to  supersede  private  management\  and  already  in  some 
states  this  is  an  accomplished  fact.^ 

MANUFACTURING. 

The  convict  factory  exists  practically  throughout  all  the  man- 
ufacturing states.  Many  of  our  prisons  are  great  bastiles, 
enclosing  within  their  limits  two,  three  and  sometimes  half  a 
dozen  factories,  in  which  the  work  is  disassociated  entirely 
from  the  mantenance  work  of  the  institution.  In  the  man- 
agement of  these  factories  the  contest  between  civil  and  pri- 
vate has  been  going  on  apace.  Certain  industries  however 
have  been  developed  in  them  to  such  efficiency  that  these  fac- 
tories have  become  pace-makers  for  the  free  factories  outside 
the  walls^ — the  antiquated  methods  of  hand-looms*  and  loose 
accounting  have  given  place  to  high-power  machinery  and  effi- 
cient shop  management.  Every  known  incentive  to  increase  the 
product  has  been  applied — from  the  straight- jacket^  to  the  straight 
wage,  from  the  pain-making  paddle  to  the  pain-deadening  co- 
caine— but  more  of  this  anon :  suffice  it  at  this  time  to  point 
out  that  by  varying  means  efficiency  has  been  secured  from 
those  who  were  inefficient,  and  it  has  been  ably  demonstrated 
that  the  convict  can  be  made  as  efficient  as  the  free-man. 
Credit  must  be  given  where  credit  is  due.  It  is  the  contractor® 
who  entered  our  prisons,  pushed  aside  the  inefficient  and  politi- 
cally appointed  warden  and  set  himself  up  as  dictator  over  the 
convict  slaves  which  he  had  bought,  who  has  demonstrated  that 
this  thing  is  possible.  He  has  shown  that  the  convict,  freed 
from  the  dissipations  of  ordinary  life,  finds  the  one  outlet  for 

^Harrison,  Shelby  M.,  "A  Cash  Nexus  for  Crime,"  The  Survey,  Jan. 
6th,  1912. 

'Kansas  and  Tennessee. 

"Maryland  State  Penitentiary. 

^Massachusetts  State  Prison. 

"Howard  Prison,  Rhode  Island. 

'The  National  Committee  on  Prison  Labor — Its  Origin  and  Purpose. 
The  Survey— Feb.  i8th,  19 11. 


■ 
/ 

» 

'^# 

^^K--'.^    Via         '-^ 

o 

H 
W 

H 


<u  Of 

•5< 


J     -73' 


0.2 


5  >. 


o 


PRODUCTION   OF   COMMODITIES.  53 

his  pent-up  energy  in  the  production  of  the  commodity  on  which 
he  works.  The  former  scatterbrain,  the  drunk,  the  frivoler, 
finds  no  other  means  of  expression  than  work.  Centred  on 
that,  in  an  agony  of  despair,  and  coaxed  along  by  cleverly  con- 
ceived incentives,  the  result  is  efficiency  plus — and  plus  has 
been  turned  into  gold  for  the  reward  of  the  individual  who  has 
grasped  the  opportunity,  not  only  to  make  these  wayward  men 
efficient,  but  to  make  them  serve  the  industrial  ends  of  the  cor- 
poration which  has  bought  their  slave  labor.  Credit  is  due  to 
the  inventor  but  there  is  an  end  to  the  duration  of  all  patents. 
To  the  question  "Are  you  not  as  competent  after  your  years  of 
experience  to  conduct  the  industries  of  this  institution  as  any 
contractor  or  foreman  that  you  have  seen,"  will  any  prison 
warden  of  experience  fail  to  answer,  "Yes,  surely."  To  the  ques- 
tion "If  you  had  conducted  this  business  in  the  last  few  years 
would  it  not  have  been  to  the  pecuniary  advantage  of  your  insti- 
tution and  the  state,"  the  same  answer  must  be  given.  Many 
wardens  have  been  questioned  and  even  from  the  strongest 
possible  advocate  of  the  contract  system  comes  the  answer,  "Cer- 
tainly, if  I  could  be  sure  of  the  market."^ 

Efficient  prison  labor  management  then  is  not  a  monopoly 
of  the  prison  contractor  but  can  be  attained  by  the  appointment 
as  head  of  the  penal  institution  of  a  man  clever  enough  to  ad- 
minister that  office  to  its  full  capacity.  This  business  initia- 
tive and  power  of  management  on  the  part  of  the  prison  warden 
has  been  evidenced  in  many  cases  where,  in  his  own  way  and 
under  the  limitations  of  his  institution  and  work,  the  warden  has 
established  to  a  great  degree  efficiency  in  production.  Fur- 
thermore the  people  of  this  country  have  confidence  in  his 
ability,  as  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  twenty-one  state  legisla- 
tures in  session  in  1911  made  some  provision  for  the  state's 
assumption  and  operation  of  its  industries. 

This  movement  has  had  the  hearty  support  of  the  American 

Federation   of  Labor   which,   together   with    resolutions   passed 

and  speeches  made,  contradicts  the  assertion  that  if  it  were  not 

for  the  fact  that  the  contractors   fought  the  unions  industrial 

'Warden  Weyler  of  Maryland  in  an  interview  with  the  writer. 


54  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

efficiency  in  the  prisons  would  be  impossible.  Probably  the 
clearest  declaration  of  principles  that  can  be  enunciated  upon 
this  point  by  organized  labor  is  contained  in  the  following 
resolutions  passed  unanimously  by  the  Illinois  State  Federation 
of  Labor  at  a  convention  at  which  fraternal  delegates  were  in. 
attendance  from  Indiana,  Iowa,  Minnesota,  Missouri,  Ohio  and 
Wisconsin. 

"We  believe  with  modern  criminologists : 

That  nearly  all  of  the  prisoners  in  penal  institutions 
are  morally  sick  people  and  can  be  cured ;  that  the  pri- 
mary purpose  of  confinement  is  reform  and  not  punish- 
ment ;  that  it  is  cheaper  in  the  last  analysis  to  reform  the 
prisoners  and  that  the  efforts  of  the  state  and  state  offi- 
cials should  be  toward  this  end. 

That  the  labor  of  these  prisoners  should  not  be  ex- 
ploited for  the  benefit  of  any  private  individual  or  for 
the  state  itself;  that  many  of  these  prisoners  sent  to 
prison  leave  behind  them  dependent  families,  whom  the 
state  is  compelled  to  support,  either  by  private  or  public 
charity. 

That  some  system  of  compensation  should  be  arranged 
whereby  the  state  would  charge  itself  at  the  prevailing 
market  price  for  all  products  manufactured  in  its  penal 
institutions,  crediting  each  prisoner  with  the  amount  thus 
earned,  so  after  deducting  from  such  the  cost  of  mainten- 
ance of  the  prisoner  and  other  necessary  costs  for  main- 
tenance, the  balance,  if  any,  should  be  paid  to^  the  family 
of  the  prisoner,  or  the  person  suffering  financial  loss 
through  the  crime  of  the  prisoner,  or  kept  and  paid  to  the 
prisoner  at  his  discharge. 

That  the  provisions  of  the  present  law  should  be  ex- 
tended so  that  not  only  state  institutions,  but  institutions 
in  counties,  cities,  and  other  political  subdivisions  of  the 
state  and  school  districts  should  be  compelled  under  a 
penalty  to  secure  wherever  possible  everything  they  need 
by  prison  labor. 


PRODUCTION    OF    COMMODITIES.  55 

And  in  addition  to  the  foregoing,  the  state  should  pro- 
vide a  method  for  the  care  of  prisoners  when  discharged 
or  paroled,  whereby  they  may  secure  employment,  or  a 
place  provide  where  they  may  remain  until  they  do  se- 
cure employment  in  order  that  they  be  not  compelled  to 
fall  back  into  crime."' 

CAPITAL     FUND. 

Many  business  enterprises  have  failed,  not  from  lack  of 
market,  or  antagonism  of  labor  interests,  but  from  lack  of  cap- 
ital. These  state  industries  like  other  industries  must  have  cap- 
ital. It  is  necessary  for  the  development  of  efficiency  that  ample 
capital  be  secured  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  growing  business.- 
Two  methods  are  in  vogue  for  creating  this  capital  fund — the 
state  appropriation,  and  the  revolving  fund  secured  by  the 
profits  of  the  prison  industries.  This  latter  method  has  often 
taken  the  form  of  a  special  fund  set  aside  from  the  profits  of 
the  contract  system  for  the  gradual  establishment  and  main- 
tenance of  the  state  use  system.  This  gradual  method  of  trans- 
fer from  one  system  to  another  makes  unnecessary  the  issuance 
of  special  bonds,  with  the  difficulties  inherent  in  bond  issues.  In 
a  state  where  contracts  continue  for  a  period  after  the  legisla- 
ture has  provided  for  the  establishment  of  the  state  use  system, 
this  method  of  gradually  accumulating  a  revolving  fund  for 
carrying  on  the  industries  has  in  it  great  possibilities.^ 


The  solution  of  the  problem  of  production  is  not  limited  to 
the  difficult  phases  of  efficiency  production,  the  capital  fund  and 
the  like.  The  methods  by  which  the  state  must  develop  these 
great  state  industries  and  endeavor  to  become  an  example  as  an 
employer  to  the  other  employers  of  the  state  must  be  based  partly 

^As  reported  in  "The  Weekly  Bulletin  of  the  Clothing  Trades" — Xov. 
loth.  19 1 1. 

"When  New  York  State  entered  into  this  business  it  established  a 
capital  fund  of  $500,000.  The  surplus  is  turned  over  each  year  to  the 
Treasury    for    appropriation    into   the    maintenance    fund. 

'Kansas  Laws,  1911 — c.  298;  Michigan  Laws,  1911 — no.  150;  North 
Dakota  Laws,  191 1 — c.  203. 


c6  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

Upon  the  problem  raised  by  the  warden  who  said,  "If  I  could 
control  my  market,"  and  by  the  problem  which  is  still  more  fund- 
amental of  the  actual  educational  needs  of  the  individual  convict 
who  must  be  trained  through  the  work  for  a  life  of  usefulness 
in  the  community  into  which  he  is  to  be  released. 


PART  V 

THE  MARKET. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  PRODUCTS. 

Problem  of  the  market — what  the  market  shall  be — the  effect  of  the 
goods  upon  this  market,  upon  the  ultimate  consumer,  upon  free  labor. 
General  competitive  market.  Transfer.  Cooperation  by  absolute  control — 
cooperative  feature  in  modern  industry.  Surplus  products.  Transfer  of 
commodities  between  institutions.  Preferred  market — classification  and 
standardization — hazard  eliminated — goods  made  to  order — credits — Legis- 
lature has  a  right  to  supply  the  market  artificially  created.  Competitive 
market  distribution — the  effect  upon  the  market.  Methods  for  lessening 
competition— limitation  of  output  based  on  number  of  convicts — prohibition 
of  manufacture  of  goods  in  state  in  which  prison  was  located — prohibition 
of  the  sale  of  the  convict  goods  in  the  state  in  which  they  are  manu- 
factured— branding  and  license.  All  subsidized  institutions  encounter  the 
same  difficulty.  The  cru.x  of  the  difficulty — securing  in  a  competitive 
market  a  fixed  market  price.  Ideal  solution — isolated  market — Socialism 
foreign  to  this  solution.  A  phase  of  socialism  in  governmentally  sub- 
sidized industries  to  control  trusts.  Centralized  national  government — 
exchange  of  surplus  commodities  between  states,  or  states  and  the  national 
government.  The  national  government  can  ensure  a  non-competitive 
market. 

"Your  Commissioners  find  that  the  conditions  in  this  State 
are  particularly  favorable  to  the  profitable  operation  of  prison 
industries.  By  statute  the  prisons  are  given  certain  economic 
advantages  over  similar  industries  operated  in  the  open  market 
at  a  profit  to  the  manufacturer.  The  law  requires  that  no  article 
manufactured  by  the  prisons  shall  be  purchased  from  any  other 
source  for  the  State  or  institutions  of  the  State  or  political  divi- 
sions thereof.  The  market  so  established  is  constant  and  certain. 
Competition  is  eliminated  and  the  selling  expense  is  reduced  to 
a  minimum. 

"Not  only  is  the  available  market  constant  and  certain  but 
we  find  that  it  is  of  sufficient  magnitude  to  consume  an  output 
many  times  the  amount  now  produced  by  the  prison  industries. 
The  expenditures  for  supplies  for  the  city  of  New  York  alone, 
exclusive  of  such  items  as  coal,  foodstuff's,  forage,  horses  etc., 
aggregate  $16,000,000  annually.  The  sales  of  the  State  prisons 
in  the  entire  State  amount  each  year  to  about  $900,000."^ 

'Final  Report  Commission  to  examine  the  Department  of  State  Prisons 
— New  York — 1911. 


DISTRIBUTION    OF    PRODUCTS.  59 

The  distribution  of  commodities  produced  by  convict  labor 
presents  the  problem  of  the  market  for  these  goods.  What 
this  market  shall  he,  the  effect  of  the  goods  upon  this  market, 
and  the  effect  upon  the  ultimate  consumer  and  free  labor  of  the 
use  of  the  market ;  these  are  the  most  troublesome  questions  con- 
nected with  convict  labor  discussion.  Here  agam  we  find  the 
distinction  between  private  and  civil  used  in  connection  with 
maintenance  and  production  also  holds  good  though  the  termin- 
ology may  need  explanation.  When  we  speak  of  market 
economically  we  mean  the  general  competitive  market  where 
goods  are  exchanged.  This  competitive  market  is  national  in 
scope.  It  has  been  the  endeavor  of  Congress  to  make  this 
market  competitive  even  by  placing  a  penalty  upon  the  restric- 
tion of  trade.  Exchange  of  commodities  however  is  not  entirely 
restricted  to  this  competitive  market  though  the  other  type  of  ex- 
change should  be  properly  called  transfer  to  make  its  meaning 
clear. 

This  transfer  in  its  simplest  form  is  found,  as  it  were,  by 
letting  the  right  hand  know  what  the  left  hand  doeth — by  allow- 
ing the  mother  of  the  family  to  raise  the  raw  material,  weave  it 
into  cloth,  cut  and  shape  it  into  clothing  and  place  it  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  family  in  exchange  for  the  products  of  the  farm 
which  may  have  been  sown,  raised  and  harvested  by  other  mem- 
bers of  the  family  group.  It  appears  again  in  the  home  school 
or  paternal  institution  where  the  different  members  work  to- 
gether for  the  good  of  the  home,  each  contributing  that  which 
he  is  able  and  receiving  that  which  he  needs.  Such  exchange  is 
not  based  upon  the  theory  of  competition  but  upon  that  of 
co-operation  and  is  made  possible  by  the  principle  of  absolute 
control  centered  in  the  father  or  the  head  of  the  institution.  It 
is  based  upon  that  most  fundamental  principle  in  the  evolution 
of  the  human  species,  the  continued  protection  and  control  of 
the  young  and  immature  by  the  more  mature.  The  interchange 
so  worked  out  is  as  definite  an  interchange  as  that  which  we 
find  on  the  local  competitive  market — the  only  difference  being 
that  the  rights  of  the  individual  are  made  absolutely  subservient 
to  the  interests  of  the  group  as  determined  by  the  individual 
having  control. 


5o  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

This  cooperative  feature  is  coming  more  and  more  strongly 
into  prominence  in  the  development  of  modern  industry  as  the 
great  trusts  add  to  themselves  those  subsidiary  companies  from 
which  they  formerly  bought  their  raw  material  or  parts  of  the 
commodities  handled.  The  exchange  in  these  cases  is  a  matter 
of  book-keeping  from  one  department  to  another,  the  credits  on 
which  the  exchange  is  made  being  fixed  by  the  central  controlling 
board.  Large  quantities  of  commodities  manufactured  by  phy- 
sically independent  plants  find  a  market  and  are  consumed  with- 
out ever  coming  upon  the  general  competitive  market.  We  must 
therefore  consider  that  there  are  two  ways  of  distributing  goods ; 
one,  the  placing  of  them  upon  the  open  market  for  general  com- 
petition ;  and  the  other,  the  consuming  of  the  commodities  within 
the  institution  or  the  inter-related  institutions,  or  corporate  organ- 
ism in  which  they  are  originally  produced. 

Internal  consumption  of  the  labor  of  the  convict,  together 
with  the  use  of  certain  commodities,  such  as  food  stufifs,  clothing, 
etc.,  which  are  produced  by  him  were  shown,  under  the  head  of 
"Maintenance,"  to  be  part  of  the  ordinary  life  of  every  penal 
institution.  The  analogy  between  home  life  and  the  daily  life 
of  the  institution  as  a  home  has  made  this  development  natural 
and  seemingly  matter-of-course,  yet  we  have  in  this  system  the 
consumption  of  a  definite  quantity  of  labor  in  well-defined  types 
of  production,  with  a  method  of  distribution  and  credits  between 
departments  similar  to  those  found  in  the  large  industrial  cor- 
porations today. 

The  surplus  products  resulting  from  the  efficiency  secured  in 
the  productive  end  of  the  penal  institutions  must  find  a  market, 
either  in  the  general  competitive  market  or  in  transfer  to  some 
other  coordinate  or  supplementary  institution  or  department, 
having  an  organic  connection  with  the  penal  institutions.  Where 
the  board  of  management  over  the  institution  has  a  coordinate 
power  over  another  institution,  as  for  instance  when  the  board 
of  the  men's  prison  is  also  the  board  of  the  women's  prison, 
we  find  that  this  transfer  between  the  institutions,  especially 
when  they  are  physically  adjacent,  becomes  most  natural  and 
logical.  It  would  be  an  inefficient  board  that  did  not  encourage 
the  men's  prison  which   has  been  equipped  with  an  expensive 


DISTRIBUTION    OF    PRODUCTS.  6l 

refrigerating  plant  to  supply  the  ice  to  both  institutions,  or  that 
did  not  in  turn  utilize  the  women's  known  ability  with  the  needle ; 
or  again  that  did  not  require  shoe-making  and  farming  by  the 
men  and  the  manufacture  of  soap  by  the  women.  The  distribu- 
tion of  industries  between  the  institutions  and  the  credits  given 
therefor  in  the  respective  budgets,  finds  an  easy  working  out  in 
the  hands  of  the  managers,  and  requires  only  the  criterion  of  all 
business  management — the  letting  your  right  hand  know  what 
your  left  hand  doeth. 

The  transfer  of  commodities  beizveen  institutions  and  depart- 
ments is  a  matter  of  coordinate  control  and  depends  first  upon 
the  existence  of  this  control  and  second  upon  the  powers  lodged 
in  the  central  governing  body.  Under  the  head  of  "Control,"  we 
have  already  seen  that  while  there  are  many  variations,  both  as 
to  type  of  control  and  the  power  vested  in  the  control,  yet  that 
there  is  a  movement  towards  centralization  of  this  control  in  a 
central  state  board  of  managers  with  power  over  all  eleemosynary 
institutions.  It  has  also  been  pointed  out  that  in  a  number  of 
states  this  board  has  not  only  the  power  of  transfer  and  with 
it  the  fixing  of  types  of  industries  and  credits  for  the  various 
institutions,  but  has  been  given  the  power  over  the  purchases 
by  state  departments,  by  counties  and  cities.  The  fundamental 
principle  is  the  same  as  in  the  transfer  within  the  prison  itself, 
between  two  institutions  connected  by  the  same  board  and  be- 
tween a  large  group  of  institutions  and  state  departments — it  is 
a  matter  of  transfer,  pure  and  simple,  and  merely  embodies  the 
recognized  principle  which  has  been  applied  so  successfully  by 
the  big  corporations  in  the  interlocking  of  coordinate  parts  so 
as  to  minimize  waste  and  avoid  the  loss  of  value  incident  to 
the  making  of  the  transfer  or  exchange  through  the  middleman — 
the  only  wonder  is  that  with  the  demand  on  the  part  of  the 
public  for  the  adoption  of  sane  business  methods  in  our  govern- 
ment we  have  come  so  slowly  and  to  such  a  limited  degree  to 
apply  propositions  which  to  the  business  man  are  axiomatic. 

A  preferred  market  for  the  products  of  the  convict's  labor 
is  established  by  this  system  of  transfer:  this  is  simply  the  con- 
verse of  the  statement  regarding  the  transfer  system.  No  penal 
institution  however  extensive  can  supply  from  within  itself,  all 


62  PENAL    SERVaTUDE. 

that  is  required  for  its  maintenance ;  the  amount  over  and  above 
what  it  can  supply  for  itself,  it  must  purchase  on  the  open 
market;  the  same  is  true  when  there  are  two  institutions  under 
a  board  or  a  hundred  institutions  and  departments — those  com- 
modities, which  cannot  be  produced,  must  be  purchased.  The 
needs  of  a  group  of  state  institutions  and  departments  can  be 
ascertained  by  the  computation  of  the  purchases  made  for  the 
institutions  and  departments  during  a  series  of  years.  Variation 
from  this  computation  would  be  slight  except  under  an  extra- 
ordinary circumstance,  such  as  fire,  and  could  be  noted  defi- 
nitely in  a  comparison  between  the  computation  of  past  needs 
and  any  adequate  system  of  purchase  which  the  state  and  cities 
may  ha\e.  The  possible  output  of  the  prisons  and  other  institu- 
tions which  may  be  engaged  in  the  manufacture  or  production 
of  commodities  within  the  system  can  likewise  be  ascertained 
either  by  former  experience  of  these  institutions  in  the  work, 
or  by  estimates  secured  from  similar  institutions,  doing  similar 
work,  in  other  states.  From  the  current  needs  of  the  institutions 
and  departments  must  be  isolated  those  commodities  which  the 
system  can  produce  and  those  commodities  which  the  system 
cannot  produce.  What  the  system  can  produce  which  will  meet 
the  needs  of  the  institution  and  departments  must  be  divided 
amongst  the  institutions  that  are  to  produce  these  commodities 
in  such  a  way  that  the  best  results  from  both  the  educational 
and  economic  standpoint  can  be  secured.  The  margin,  which 
cannot  be  manufactured  or  produced,  must  be  purchased  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  secure  the  best  results  for  the  money  invested, 
either  by  a  central  purchasing  bureau,  or  by  the  signing  of  re- 
leases or  some  other  method  of  audit  which  will  allow  the  pur- 
chase to  be  made  by  the  local  authorities.  The  work  of  classifi- 
cation and  standardisation  should  be  completed  some  time  before 
the  commodities  are  needed,  so  that  the  delivery  may  be  not  only 
on  time  but  that  the  commodities  may  be  on  hand  and  ready  for 
use  should  special  emergency  develop.  In  the  matter  of  outside 
purchase  this  forehandedness  would  allow  for  the  purchase  of 
goods  in  the  most  favorable  market  and  the  testing  of  the  goods 
as  to  quantity  and  quality  before  their  reception.  The  preferred 
market  is  thereby  established  for  the  products  of  penal  industries : 


DISTRIBUTION    OF    PRODUCTS.  63 

preferred  in  that  it  is  absolutely  assured  before  the  prison  be- 
gins the  manufacture,  the  element  of  loss  and  hazard  being 
eliminated.  On  the  other  hand  the  institutions  and  departments, 
while  under  the  necessity  of  conforming  to  standard  commodities 
still  have  the  opportunity  to  designate  the  special  type  of  article 
desired  and  have  it  made  the  standard,  thus  getting  goods  made 
to  order  which  is  universally  agreed  to  be  preferable  to  ready 
made.  This  substitutes  for  the  bargain  counter  purchase  of 
ready-made  goods  by  the  buyer  who  does  not  know  what  he 
wants  until  he  sees  it,  the  orderly  method  of  exact  administration 
required  by  big  business  on  the  order  basis. 

Credits  between  the  production  end  and  the  consumption  end 
are  secured  by  the  bureau  placing  value  on  the  commodities,  the 
standard  being  the  prevailing  wholesale  rate,  noted  by  ac- 
credited agencies,  for  the  competitive  market.  If  the  credits 
or  prices  are  not  literally  the  prices  at  which  job  lots  of  the 
commodity  can  be  secured  on  an  advertised  bargain  counter, 
they  will  be  the  average,  normal  price  of  those  goods  and  in 
the  long  run  conform  to  the  general  standards,  and  if  a  "con- 
venient" mistake  is  made  by  such  a  board  the  state  itself  will  not 
lose  thereby  for,  where  there  is  a  common  purse,  the  robbing  of 
Peter  to  pay  Paul  has  little  practical  value.  The  common  purse 
of  the  state  is  the  treasury;  from  it,  the  legislature  votes  each 
year  sums  of  money  to  carry  out  its  will  regarding  the  support 
of  the  eleemosynary  institutions,  the  state  departments,  county 
and  city  schools  and  a  thousand  and  one  local,  yet  state-subsidized, 
enterprises.  The  state  in  loco  parentis  has  assumed  a  moral 
obligation  to  carry  on  these  enterprises,  but  should  it  deem  it 
expedient  for  the  best  good  of  the  state  to  discontinue  them, 
it  would  not  only  have  a  moral  right,  but  an  absolute  duty  to  do 
so.  To  supply  the  needs  of  its  own  creations,  the  eleemosynary 
institutions  and  the  departments,  the  state  has  created  a  demand 
for  commodities.  The  legislature  decides  which  of  these  needs 
shall  be  paid  for — it  is  in  the  position  of  a  father  allowing  his 
daughter  money  for  a  new  dress  or  a  new  hat ;  they  are  conces- 
sions made  by  the  father  to  the  dependent  child.  If  he  cannot 
afford  it,  he  says  so  and  they  are  not  bought,  despite  the  chagrin 
of  the  milliner  and  the  dressmaker.     Neither  the  milliner  nor 


DISTRIHUTICJN    OF    PRODUCTS.  C5 

the  dressmaker  has  a  right  to  complain  if  the  ingenious  daughter 
goes  to  work  and,  out  of  the  small  allowance  for  materials  which 
the  father  may  make,  devises  a  hat  and  a  gown  for  herself  or 
a  pair  of  trousers  for  her  young  brother.  Likewise  no  business 
interest  has  a  right  to  demand  that  the  legislature  as  repre- 
senting the  state  supply  it,  through  its  eleemosynary  institutions 
and  departments,  with  a  market  for  its  goods. 

The  legislature  may  then  be  said  to  have  a  moral  right  to 
supply  the  market,  which  it  artificially  creates,  from  the  product 
of  the  labor  of  its  slaves  who  toil  under  its  direction  and  at  its 
behest. 

Competitive  market  distribution  of  the  products  ot  convict 
labor  is  a  more  general  method  than  that  of  transfer  or  state 
consumption  which  has  been  outlined  above.  As  will  be  ob- 
served upon  the  map  (page  58)  in  twenty-three  states  all  the 
surplus  product  reaches  the  open  market,  in  sixteen  states  a  part 
of  it  does,  while  in  nine  none  does.  General  market  distribution 
may  be  managed  either  by  an  individual  or  a  state  agent :  where 
it  is  individual  production,  the  individual  naturally  sells  the 
goods;  where  it  is  state  production,  the  product  may  be  sold 
directly  or  upon  order  to  a  middleman  who  puts  it  on  the  open 
market,  or  it  may  be  sold  by  agents  of  the  state  who  go  into 
the  market  as  selling-agents — in  any  case  the  goods  are  placed 
on  the  market  in  competition  with  other  goods  which  are  manu- 
factured or  produced  by  those  who  employ  free  labor.  Eco- 
nomically the  result  in  the  three  systems  is  the  same  in  its  effect 
upon  the  market  and  they  may  be  considered  together.  The  goods 
manufactured  by  free  workingmen  must  be  sold  at  a  price  which 
will  be  the  sum  of  the  cost  of  the  material  entering  into  the  com- 
modity, the  overhead  charges  and  the  wages  of  the  free  working- 
man  before  any  profit  can  be  derived.  The  convict  goods 
have  similar  cost  for  material,  variable  cost  for  overhead  charges, 
with  variable  wage  or  cost  for  labor.  The  analysis,  if  we  elim- 
inate the  cost  of  material,  shows  us  that  the  overhead  charges 
and  the  cost  of  labor  enter  into  the  lowest  possible  price  at 
which  the  sales-agent  can  sell  the  commodity.  In  the  manu- 
facture of  convict  goods  by  contract — where  the  manufacturer 
employs  the  prisoner  in   the    prison — the    building,    light,    heat 


66  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

and  power  are  thrown  in  with  the  labor,  or  for  a  nominal  sum 
of  $ioo  or  $200/  labor  is  paid  at  any  rate  from  6^  to  85^  cents 
per  day  in  factories,  or  full  union  wages  in  certain  coal 
mines.*  The  efficiency  of  this  labor  varies  according  to  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  management;  to  show  its  actual  value  as  an  item- 
of  cost  would  necessitate  the  careful  study  of  all  the  financial 
transactions  of  the  so-called  contractors.  For  this  purpose  vague 
estimates  by  prejudiced  informants,  like  those  contained  in  the 
reports  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Labor,  are  practically  worth- 
less,^ still  the  testimony  of  a  certain  prison  contractor^  that  the 
prison  population,  including  the  decrepid  life  termers  and  the  im- 
beciles, averages  two-thirds  the  efficiency  of  free  labor,  cannot  be 
taken  as  an  over-statement  of  the  value  of  the  labor  which  he 
bought.  This  did  not  take  into  consideration  the  possibility  of  a 
contractor  having  the  right  to  punish  the  prisoner  for  not  doing  his 
work  efficiently,-  or  of  such  extreme  pressure,  through  strict  dis- 
cipline, that  a  warden  can  boast  that  he  has  secured  greater  effi- 
ciency from  the  convicts  committed  to  his  institution  than  is 
secured  in  average  outside  shops,  and  claim  that  the  prison  shops 
have  been  used  as  pace-makers  for  similar  shops  throughout  the 
United  States.^  While  the  efficiency  is  probably  more  than  two- 
thirds  that  of  the  average  man,  there  is  little  to  justify  the  con- 
tention that  it  is  less  than  two-thirds,  and  furthermore  these  are 
the  conclusions  arrived  at  in  hap-hazard  manner  by  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  in  1905.  Should  we  take  two-thirds 
efficiency  as  a  basis  for  the  daily  stint,  which  is  practically 
the  average  of  what  the  men  can  do  in  a  day,  we  will 
find  a  comparison  of  the  price  of  contract  and  free  labor 
possible :    two-thirds  of  the  wage  paid    for    the    average    free 

^Maryland  House  of  Correction,  See  Appendix  I,  p.  iiy. 

^New    Haven   Jail — Connecticut. 

^State   Penitentiary — Frankfort,   Ky. 

■•Tennessee  Coal  and  Iron  Company  in  Alabama. 

"U.  S.  Department  of  Labor,  "Reports  1885-1895-1905." 

^Testimony  of  Mr.  Henry  Pope  of  the  Paramount  Knitting  Company, 
Chicago,  who  has  had  years  of  experience  in  prison  industries  and  had 
an  extensive  contract  at  Waupun,  the  Wisconsin  State  Prison,  before 
William  Church  Osborne  and  George  E.  Van  Kennan,  the  Commissioners 
appointed  by  Governor  Dix  to  Examine  the  Department  of  State  Prisons. 

'Maryland  Penitentiary. 


DISTRIBUTION    OF    PRODUCTS.  67 

man's  labor,  in  the  manufacturing  industries,  must  be  con- 
trasted with  the  6  or  85  cents  per  day  under  the  contract  sys- 
tem. Should  all  the  contractors  be  forced  to  pay  85  cents  a 
day  they  would  be  paying  for  work  similar  to  the  work  of  free 
men  at  $1.25  and  without  any  overhead  charges.  The  selling- 
price  of  convict  goods  must  be  the  sum  of  the  cost  of  material, 
the  cost  of  labor  at  $1.25  a  day  and  the  cost  of  supervision. 
The  cost  of  the  free  product  will  be  the  cost  of  the  material,  the 
overhead  charges,  the  cost  of  free  labor  and  a  similar  cost  of 
supervision.  Convict  goods  can  therefore  be  sold  at  a  price  below 
that  of  the  products  of  free  labor  in  proportion  as  the  overhead 
charges  and  the  difference  in  the  cost  of  labor  enter  in.  To 
meet  this  cut-rate  the  seller  of  free  goods  must  cut  the  price 
to  meet  the  price  of  prison  goods.  To  sustain  no  loss  he  must 
cut  the  wage  of  free  labor,  not  only  to  $1.25  or  to  10  cents,  but 
to  as  much  below  as  shall  allow  for  the  overhead  charges. 
The  cut  in  the  wage  thus  sustained  by  the  laboring  man  must 
be  met  by  either  a  change  of  occupation,  a  decrease  in  the  stand- 
ard of  living,  or  the  placing  at  work  of  the  children  in  the  family ; 
or  if  the  result  is  disastrous,  the  placing  the  family  on  the  poor- 
list.  The  price  of  convict  goods  can  be  met  by  the  manufacturer 
and  in  some  cases  is,  but  with  a  result  to  society  which  is  costly 
indeed. 

Even  in  those  coal  mines  where  the  union  wage  prevails  and 
overhead  charges  are  borne  by  the  companies  and  not  the  state, 
we  find  the  wage  of  free  labor  affected.  The  president^  of  one 
of  the  largest  coal  companies  has  ordered  the  termination  of 
convict  leases  because  their  continuance  was  unfair  to  the  unions 
and  made  impossible  the  wage  movement. 

The  union  labor  movement  in  its  attempt  to  force  up  the 
wage  and  increase  the  standard  of  living  of  the  working  classes 
has  met  with  bitter  opposition  this  tendency  of  prison  made 
goods  to  force  down  wages.  In  the  early  days  of  unionism  in 
1823  this  opposition  manifested  itself  and  has  continued  through 
all  the  developments  and  phases  of  the  union  movement.-     In 

'Crawford,  G.  G.,  President,  Tennessee  Coal  and  Iron  Company,  Survey, 
Jan.  6th,  igi2. 

'Reported  in  N.  Y.  Mechanics'  Gacette,  May  17th,  1823. 


68  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

1834^  the  Albany  unions  pointed  out  clearly  that  their  opposition 
was  to  the  difference  in  wage,  or  the  cost  of  labor,  in  the  pro- 
duction of  free  and  convict  goods,  and  not  to  the  goods  them- 
selves. The  great  difficulty  for  the  union  man,  of  the  type  which 
dominated  the  union  forces  before  the  present  national  move-  • 
ment  developed,  in  analyzing  the  situation  on  the  basis  of  abstract 
economics  often  led  to  a  blind  opposition  to  the  only  tangible 
thing  which  could  be  reached  by  the  methods  in  hand.  Through 
the  ballot  and  the  legislative  lobby  the  unions  made  their  desires 
known  and  a  number  of  methods  were  devised  as  a  means  of 
lessening  the  competition  and  the  injury  therefrom.  Limitation 
of  output  in  lines  affected  was  the  prevailing  remedy,  based  on 
the  theory  that  where  the  quantity  was  small  the  debasing  effect 
of  the  goods  on  the  market  would  be  small.  As  the  limitation 
upon  the  quantity  of  output  was  difficult  to  legislate  upon  and 
in  a  Held  in  which  the  union  men  were  not  versed,  the  limitation 
was  placed  upon  the  number  of  convicts'^  that  could  be  employed 
on  any  one  commodity  and  the  restriction  against  the  use  of 
machinery.^  Experience  showed  that  the  restriction  of  the 
quantity  manufactured  in  one  state  did  not  have  the  desired 
effect  of  removing  the  difficulties  inherent  in  the  open  market 
competition :  when  a  line  of  goods  was  restricted  in  one  state, 
it  was  almost  sure  to  be  introduced  by  contractors  into  another 
state,  so  that  after  some  years  of  development  of  this  sort  of 
thing  the  combined  output  of  the  prisons  in  the  several  states  in 
any  special  line  was  greater  than  if  all  the  convicts  of  any  one 
state  were  to  work  upon  it.  Again  as  soon  as  the  prison  shops 
had  attained  efficiency  great  enough  to  really  produce  the  quantity, 
the  quantity  was  limited  by  legislation  prohibiting  the  continu- 
ance of  that  special  type  of  industry.  As  one  industry  after 
another  was  tried  in  the  prisons  and  exterminated  by  union 
pressure  upon  the  legislature,  only  the  unorganized  trades  were 
left.  These  unorganized  or  women's  trades  when  the  local 
trade  union  gave  place  to  the  Knights  of  Labor  were  attacked 
as  being  inimical  to  the  general  good  of  labor.     Limitations  of  a 

'New  York  State,  Ass.  Doc,  1834,    No.  289. 

'Laws   of    Pennsylvania — Brightley's    Digest — 1903 — Sec.   4. 

'Laws  of  Pennsylvania,  1903 — sec.  6. 


DISTRIBUTION    OF    PRODUCTS.  69 

geographic  type  were  also  tried  and  the  prison  manufactures 
limited  to  lines  of  goods  imported  into  the  country,^  but  as  the 
introduction  of  the  industry  into  the  prison  proved  that  it  could 
be  conducted  with  American  workmen,  the  result  was  the  intro- 
duction of  the  industry  into  the  United  States ;  the  same  was 
true  regarding  the  prohibition  of  the  inamifacture  of  a)iy  goods 
which  were  being  manufactured  in  the  state  in  which  the  prison 
zi'as  located,'  while  the  possibility  of  introducing  an  industry  into 
the  state,  even  where  it  was  not  actually  introduced,  tended  to 
make  the  duration  of  the  prison  industry  too  uncertain  to  risk 
its  development,  either  by  the  state  or  a  contractor  under  the 
competitive  market  system.  Again  the  "prohibition  of  the  sale 
of  the  convict  goods  in  the  state  in  which  they  are  manufactured"^ 
simply  resulted  in  exchange  of  markets  and  an  extra  haul  for 
the  goods  but  did  not  drive  the  convict  goods  out  of  any  market. 
Finally  the  scheme  of  branding  the  goods  "prison  made"  or  re- 
quiring license  for  their  sale  has  been  tried  in  thirteen 
states  and  declared  unconstitutional  either  on  the  basis  that  the 
branding  destroyed  value  in  the  goods  and  thus  deprived  an 
individual  of  property  without  due  process  of  law,  or  on  the 
basis  that  the  license  was  in  conflict  with  the  interstate  com- 
merce law.  Where  the  state  imposed  either  the  branding  or 
licensing  law  upon  its  convict  goods,  it  was  found  that  the  goods 
were  simply  deprived  of  a  certain  amount  of  value  and  that, 
unless  the  law  prohibited  the  sale  of  the  goods,  which  was  the 
real  intent  of  branding  and  licensing,  the  end  sought  by  the 
interests  demanding  this  type  of  legislation  was  not  secured,  and 
the  result  was  simply  a  financial  loss  to  the  state.  So  far  no 
court  has  upheld  the  branding  or  licensing  law  constitutional,*  ^ 
which  affected  the  goods  of  states  other  than  the  one  in  which 
the  law  was  passed,  provided  they  conformed  to  the  interstate 

'Eaves,  L.  C,  "California  Labor  Legislation,"  p.  359,  University  of 
California,  Publications  in  Economics. 

"Idaho,  Codes  1901,  See  5821;  Michigan,  Constitution,  Article  18,  Sec. 
3;  Utah,  Revised  Statutes,  1898,  Sec.  2257. 

'Reported  to  have  been  included  in  Rhode  Island  contracts  previous 
to    1903- 

*i57,  N.  Y.  I.,  "Hawkins  Case." 

'New  York  State  Department  of  Labor  "Bulletin,  March,  1910,"  p.  58. 


yO  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

commerce  law.^  There  seems  likelihood  however  that  the  "state 
use  states"  could  enforce  the  law  regarding  licensing  or  branding 
if  Congress  should  pass  a  law,  similar  to  the  Wilson  Liquor  Law, 
restricting  the  interstate  commerce  in  these  commodities  and  al- 
lowing the  states  to  place  their  own  penalty  upon  the  sale.  Further 
restriction  is  found  in  the  prohibition  by  Congress  of  the  intro- 
duction of  foreign  convict  goods  into  this  country  and  the  govern- 
ment order  promulgated  by  Pres.  Roosevelt  that  the  national  de- 
partments should  not  buy  convict  goods.^  Attempts  have  been 
made  to  confirm  this  order  of  Pres.  Roosevelt's  by  legislation  in 
Congress,  both  by  separate  act  and  by  the  limitation  of  such 
goods  in  interstate  commerce,  but  as  yet  no  such  bill  has  passed 
Congress. 

All  these  attempts  to  limit  production  and  the  exchange  of 
prison  commodities  have  aimed  to  destroy  legitimate  value  and 
are  economically  wasteful,  but  have  been  justified  on  the  basis 
of  the  disastrous  effect  of  convict  goods  on  the  competitive 
market.  The  fact  that  they  have  failed  in  their  constitutionality 
and  before  Congress  is  due  to  their  aiming  blindly  at  the  evil 
and  not  making  clear  that  it  lies  not  in  the  convict  goods  but 
in  the  unfair  competition.  The  local  market  is  so  very  sensitive 
that  it  can  be  broken  by  even  small  quantities  of  such  goods 
if  thrown  intermittently  upon  this  market,  especially  when 
the  identity  of  the  goods  is  concealed.  The  pressure  down- 
ward bears  down  the  price  and  thus  the  wage,  as  we  have 
already  shown,  producing  disastrous  results  upon  the  working 
people.  Methods  have  been  devised  by  agents  to  conceal  the 
identity  of  prison  goods  by  mixing  these  goods  with  other  goods 
manufactured  in  free  factories ;  for  instance,  the  output  in  the 
boot  and  shoe  line  has  been  absorbed  in  the  output  of  certain 
free  factories,  either  by  direct  incorporation  or  by  isolating  cer- 
tain specific  lines  in  which  prison  manufacture  is  allowed.  Where 
there  is  incorporation  in  the  main  stock,  the  seller  of  the  whole 
line  is  able  to  use  the  special  advantage  of  cheap  labor  in  the 
prison  goods,  not  only  in  that  line,  but  to  average  it  throughout 
the  whole  line  he  carries,  thus  spreading  the  evil  and  producing 
a  very  powerful   and  dangerous   force.      This   again  is  true   in 

^Sixtj'-first  Congress,  ist  Session — H.  R.  12,000. 
"Navj^  Department — Form  A. 


Cl, 


Ph 


DISTRIBUTION    OF    PRODUCTS.  7I 

the  case  of  direct  order  houses  where  the  averaging  of  prices 
adds  to  the  great  efficiency  secured  by  the  cutting  out  of  the 
middleman.  One  instance  alone  seems  to  have  been  worked 
out  where  disastrous  competition  is  said  not  to  result;  it  is  where 
the  goods  have  been  so  standardized  and  the  prices  listed  for  a 
long  period  so  that  the  free  manufacturers  have  adjusted  them- 
selves to  the  circumstance  and  have  left  this  line  entirely  to  the 
prison.  By  this  means  all  competition  has  been  done  away  with 
but  it  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  the  result  would  be 
if  the  principle  embodied  in  the  Sherman  Anti-trust  Act  should 
be  applied ;  it  would  either  prove  a  violation  of  the  spirit  of  the 
law  or  that  there  was  really  competition  of  an  insidious  kind 
which  did  not  appear  upon  the  surface.  In  the  hollowware  line 
there  seems  to  be  extermination  of  competition  by  the  non- 
existence of  the  industry  outside  of  the  prisons.^  In  the  chair  in- 
dustry, as  it  exists  in  connection  with  one  institution,-  there  is 
no  doubt  regarding  the  actual  competition,  though  a  local  concern^ 
engaged  in  this  industry  claims  that  the  competition  does  not 
affect  it  as  it  does  not  make  that  line  of  goods.  But  while  there 
is  an  arrangement  between  the  prison  and  the  factory  in  this 
particular,  which  avoids  local  competition,  the  competition  with 
the  other  manufacturers  of  the  country  cannot  fail  to  be  the 
same  as  is  found  in  the  usual  competition  between  free  labor  and 
convict  labor. 

All  subsidi::ed  institutions  having  an  educational  or  semi- 
educational  function  that  have  developed  productive  work  to 
any  perceptible  degree  and  have  placed  their  goods  on  the  open 
market  have  encountered  this  same  difficulty  which  is  inherent  in 
the  problem:  in  the  sale  of  the  goods  they  lower  the  market 
prices  and  injure  the  laborers  in  the  community.  The  defence  of 
the  laboring  classes,  whether  farmers  or  artisans,  against  this 
destructive  competition  has  been  by  legislative  enactment.  An 
example  is  found  in  the  best  trade  school*  in  this  country  where 
the  inhabitants  of  the  county  have  prohibited  the  sale  of   the 

'United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor,  "Report  1905,"  p.   126. 
^The  Detroit  Mouse  of  Correction. 
^Murphy  Chair  Company  of  Detroit. 
^Hampton  Institute,  Virginia. 


72  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

products  of  the  institution  in  the  county  by  means  of  a  require- 
ment licensing  all  persons  engaged  in  barter  and  excluding  from 
such  category  educational  institutions.^  Thus  the  trade  school, 
to  sell  its  goods,  must  become  a  manufacturing  institution  and 
relinquish  its  educational  charter,  while  with  the  relinquishing  of 
the  charter  all  state  appropriations  and  individual  donations 
revert  to  the  source  from  which  they  came.  Despite  the  great 
agitation  for  state  industrial  schools  of  a  productive  type,  the 
development  has  been  almost  imperceptible  in  that  direction, 
due,  it  is  confessed  by  the  industrial  education  experts  engaged 
on  the  problem,  to  a  failure  to  adjust  their  educational  ideas  to 
the  practical  difficulties  of  disposing  of  their  goods  so  as  not 
to  affect  the  market  and  thus  antagonize  the  labor  unions. 

The  crux  of  the  difficulty  lies  in  the  practical  impossibility  of 
securing  in  a  competitive  market  a  fixed  market  price,^  arbitrarily 
established,  for  a  certain  amount  of  commodities  sold  on  that 
market.  The  suggestion  has  been  made  regarding  the  prison 
industries  and  has  been  incorporated  into  law  for  certain  trade^ 
schools  that  the  goods  be  sold  at  the  prevailing  market  rate, 
but  in  reality  such  a  thing  is  impossible.  It  supposes  that  in  a 
competitive  market,  a  certain  part  of  that  market  can  be  taken 
out  of  competition  and  yet  the  freedom  of  intercourse  between 
this  competitive  and  non-competitive  market  be  sustained — this 
is  an  economic  impossibility.  Yet  the  severence  of  intercourse 
between  the  competitive  market  and  the  non-competitive  market 
regulated  on  the  average  of  the  fluctuations  of  the  competitive 
market,  is  a  possibility  and  satisfies  the  conditions  desired,  pro- 
vided some  method  can  be  devised  whereby  the  goods  can  be 
made  to  flow  through  the  non-competitive  market.  While  this 
ideal  may  seem  impractical  and  impossible,  under  individualistic 
control,  where  the  source  of  the  commodities  is  state  factories 
and  the  consumers  are  state  dependents  this  condition  is  ob- 
tainable. 

The  ideal  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  market  which  is 

^Virginia,  Tax  Law,   1903 — cl.  45- 

'Brandeis,  Louis  D.,  "Address  before  the  Senate  Committee  on  Inter- 
state and  Foreign  Commerce,  Dec.  14th,  191 1."  Reported  in  New  York 
Times,  Dec.  15th,  igii. 

^Manhattan  Trade  School,  New  York  City. 


DISTRIBUTION    OF    PRODUCTS.  73 

impractical  of  realization  under  individualism  becomes  practical 
and  adequate  when  the  state  assumes  its  correct  function  as 
comptroller  of  its  various  parts.  We  therefore  find  that  whether 
we  start  from  the  state  or  civil  standpoint  and  endeavor  to  ob- 
tain efficiency,  or  the  mdividualistic  or  private  standpoint  and 
endeavor  to  obtain  fair  competition,  the  solution  lies  in  the 
standardization  of  commodities  and  their  exchange  between  one 
department  and  another  of  the  state  on  a  wholly  isolated  market, 
at  a  price  as  near  as  possible  to  the  mean  of  the  fluctuation  of 
the  outside  competitive  market. 

Socialism,  placing  any  construction  possible  upon  that  term, 
IS  foreign  to  this  solution,  though  in  no  way  either  opposed  or 
encouraged  by  its  working  out.  The  isolation  of  any  parts  of 
a  body,  as  the  atoms  in  the  air  from  the  rest  of  the  air,  may 
limit  the  area  in  which  the  parts  can  circulate  but  tends  in  no 
way  to  restrict  the  rapidity  of  the  motion  of  the  parts.  To  say 
that  a  child  under  fourteen  years  of  age  cannot  enter  into  the 
competitive  business  life  of  the  community  does  not  change  the 
competitive  system  into  which  he  may  emerge  at  fourteen  years 
of  age.  To  say  that  the  dependents,  the  aged,  the  sick  and  the 
insane,  should  be  isolated  and  protected  from  being  exploited  or 
exploiting  the  community  in  general  is  not  to  overthrow  the 
present  industrial  system.  The  isolation  of  the  state  factories 
and  state  use  market  from  the  general  competitive  market  is 
not  only  part  of  the  same  movement,  but  is  the  direct  result  of 
it  and  has  the  same  relation  to  the  economic  system  today  as 
have  these  other  phases  of  the  problem. 

A  phase  of  socialism  finds  its  expression  in  one  angle  of 
the  prison  labor  problem,  and  in  a  condition  necessarily  foreign 
to  the  solution  of  the  distribution  problem  outlined  above ; 
it  is  the  establishment  of  a  factory  system  under  government 
management,  not  for  the  purpose  of  securing  productive  work 
for  the  convicts  or  producing  commodities  for  the  government's 
consumption,  but  that  governmentally  subsidized  industries  may 
represent  certain  citizens  of  the  community  in  their  struggle 
to  control  the  so-called  trusts.  The  use  of  the  convict  in  this 
connection  is  not  only  secondary  but  absolutely  incidental, 
though  it  is  made  the  basis  for  avoiding  the  constitutional  diffi- 


74  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

culties  inherent  in  the  proposition  in  certain  states.^  It  has  been 
pointed  out  that  the  successful  establishment  of  such  subsidized 
manufactures,  similar  to  the  state  subsidized  industries  of 
Germany,  will  tend  to  demonstrate  that  the  state's  ownership 
and  operation  of  industry  is  more  beneficial  to  the  public  weal 
than  the  present  individualistic  and  competitive  system.^  Whether 
or  not  this  is  true  the  present  discussion  has  not  under  con- 
sideration; whether  or  not  the  establishment  of  these  state 
subsidized  industries  will  lead  to  a  broader  adaptation  of  that 
principle  is  not  under  discussion ;  but  sure  it  is  that  the  use  of 
ihe  convict  to  this  end  is  simply  a  subterfuge  and  a  method  of 
avoiding  the  real  issue  involved.  If  the  farmers  of  Minnesota 
desire  a  twine  factory  to  aid  them  in  their  fight  against  the  large 
twine  manufacturers  and  desire  the  goods  to  be  sold,  as  they 
are  at  present,  one-fourth  cent  a  pound  under  the  price  estab- 
lished by  the  so-called  trusts,  they  should  take  the  necessary 
legislative  action,  or,  if  that  is  impossible  because  of  constitutional 
ciifficulties,  should  take  action  to  amend  the  constitution  so  that 
they  could  force  the  state  government  to  conform  to  their  desire 
in  this  connection,  and  stand  by  the  principles  enunciated  in 
such  action.  To  use  the  convict  and  a  so-called  philanthropic 
or  humanitarian  motive  as  a  substitute  for  clearly  defined  ex- 
pression of  political  principles  is  to  descend  not  only  to  decep- 
tion, but  to  prove  unworthy  of  suffrage  which  is  based  upon  the 
assumption  that  it  will  be  a  direct  expression  of  the  honest  will 
of  the  public  regarding  the  actions  of  duly  authorized  state 
officials. 

The  efficient  development  of  state  governments,  in  counter- 
distinction  to  the  strongly  developed  centralized  national  govern- 
ment has  never  been  a  socialistic  doctrine  per  se,  but  has  been 
the  doctrine  of  the  believers  in  states  rights.  The  solution  sug- 
gested and  at  present  inaugurated  in  a  number  of  our  states 
carries  that  doctrine  to  its  logical  conclusion.  To  the  believer 
in  the  centralised  national  government  another  element  of 
distribution  possible  under  the  conditions  laid  down  can  be 
found    either   in    the    suggestion    of    exchange   of  surplus   com- 

'Indiana,   Kansas,   Michigan,   Minnesota,   Missouri,   N.   Dakota. 
'Seager,  H.   R.,  "Address,"  Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of  Political 
Science — vol.  II — no.  2. 


DISTRIBUTION    OF    PRODUCTS.  75 

tnoditics  bet-wecn  the  several  states  or  between  respective  states 
and  the  national  (jovernment.  In  the  largest  states  such  as  New 
York^  where  there  is  at  present  a  market  of  $20,000,000  of  needed 
goods  to  be  met  by  $1,000,000  worth  of  prison  products,  it  seems 
unlikely  that  there  will  ever  be  a  surplus  for  trading  with  other 
states ;  but  between  a  small  agricultural  state,  with  few  eleemosyn- 
ary institutions  and  weak  state  departments,  and  a  small  in- 
dustrial state,  with  as  few  institutions  for  consumption  of  the 
prison  products,  a  possible  exchange,  either  directly  or  through 
such  agencies  as  the  Governors'  Conference  or  some  semi-official 
bureau  which  might  come  into  existence  for  the  purpose,  might 
be  made  effective  and  desirable.  Likewise  between  the  state 
and  the  national  governments  there  might  be  a  purchasing  system 
for  the  great  quantity  of  supplies  and  commodities  necessary 
for  the  army  and  navy,  the  national  service  and  national  de- 
partments ;  and  the  appropriations  from  Congress  might  be  made 
directly  to  the  respective  states  to  pay  for  the  goods  secured, 
on  a  basis  similar  to  that  on  which  Congress  has  provided  for 
many  years  for  the  support  of  national  prisoners  in  state  prisons. 


The  market  of  the  states  and  subdivisions  of  the  states  in 
their  inter-relation  one  to  the  other,  plus  the  great  market  avail- 
able through  the  national  government  can  ensure  a  non-com- 
petitive market  for  the  goods  of  the  prisons — as  we  hope  to  see 
them,  run  with  a  maximum  of  efficiency — and  also  for  the  pro- 
ducts of  other  eleemosynary  institutions  and  of  industrial  train- 
ing institutions,  which  the  trade  school  system  is  bound  to  estab- 
lish through  the  length  and  breadth  of  this  land. 

'Final  Report  of  the  Commissioners  to  Examine  the  Department  of 
State  Prisons,  New  York,  191 1. 


PART  VI 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  PROBLEMS. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   WRECK. 

The  Education  of  a  Criminal. 

The  Warden,  the  Contractor  and  myself  occupied  the  office 
when  the  prisoner,  hat  in  hand,  appeared  at  the  door.  "Come 
in  and  sit  down,  John,"  said  the  warden.  "I  have  been  telHng 
my  friend,  the  Doctor,  that  this  prison  isn't  Hke  the  other  prisons 
and  that  we  look  out  for  a  fellow  in  here.  Now  the  Doctor 
would  like  to  know  about  it ;  don't  you  suppose  you  can  tell 
him  ?" 

"Well,  Warden,  I  couldn't  have  a  week  ago  but  I  guess 
thanks  to  you  I  can  now — my  hand's  better,"  and  he  held  up  his 
hand  which  only  shook  a  little.  'I'm  getting  my  nerve  and  I'll 
fight  it  through  now  that  you  are  helping  me.  You  see,  Doctor, 
as  the  Warden  says,  the  whole  difference  between  this  prison 
and  others  is  I  thought  I  could  trust  'em  and  tell  'em  the  truth 
and  they'd  help  me,  so  I  sent  for  the  Dep.  and  owned  up.  He 
brought  me  to  the  Warden,  and  I'm  resting  on  him  and  maybe 
he'll  make  me  well  to  go  back  to  Mother." 

He  was  a  refined-looking  fellow,  thirty-five  years  of  age, 
light  hair,  clear-cut  face  which  his  plain  prison  garb  did  not 
rob  of  its  refinement.  With  an  occasional  question  from  the 
Warden  and  a  word  of  encouragement  now  and  then  from  my- 
self,  his   story   came   somewhat  this   way: — 

"I  had  a  good  family  and  Mother,  but  I  got  down  in  Chi- 
cago on  the  bum,  selling  papers  and  running  errands  for  the 
messenger  service,  in  and  out  of  the  joints,  early  and  late,  and 
natural  I  picked  up  the  dope.  It  came  easy  then  and  I  used 
to  get  wandering  with  it  and  each  time  I  wandered  I  got  in 
trouble.  The  first  time  they  sent  me  to  the  "Home"  in  Illinois ; 
it's  a  good  place  and  well  run — big  folks  supported  it  with  their 
money,  and  yet  somehow  I  didn't  care  much  about  it — they  all 
slept  in  a  big  dormitory — everything  went  the  same  every  day 
and  nobody  seemed  to  care  about  me — no  one  got  to  know  me. 


78  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

Finally  my  time  was  up;  I  was  well  from  the  dope  though 
nobody  ever  seemed  to  know  I'd  taken  it.  They  got  me  a  job 
in  Chicago  and  I  went  over  there.  A  few  weeks  in  the  old 
town  and  somebody  gave  me  a  taste  of  the  old  stuff  again 
and — I  got  sent  to  Chester  for  doing  something.  Chester  was 
just  a  reformatory,  and  we  boys  were  machines — yes,  we  did 
knitting.  You  know  the  people  down  there,  Mr,  Contractor? 
They  just  ground  out  the  work,  and  we  got  as  much  dope  as 
friends  could  slip  in  to  us — we  bluffed  it  along,  we  fellows, 
until  the  time  was  up. 

"Back  to  the  town  again — two  weeks  of  work  and — the  same 
old  dope.  Mother  never  knew;  she  thought  I  was  part  crazy; 
she  never  guessed  it  was  dope  and  I  never  dared  tell  anybody. 
I  couldn't  trust  anybody — I  mean  nobody  to  take  care  of  me. 
So  it's  been  ever  since.  You  see,  sir,  if  you've  never  taken 
dope  you  don't  know  what  it's  like — and  then  things  are  always 
happening  to  get  you  into  trouble,  and  get  you  back  to  jail 
again. 

"Yes,  I  did  my  term  at  Fort  Madison.  Oh,  it's  a  hell  of  a 
hole!  Just  run  by  the  contractors — the  warden  can't  call  his 
soul  his  own.  Dope!  Yes,  I  got  it  there  and  over  at  Joliet — 
well,  there's  a  place  you  never  see  the  warden.  He  sits  in  the 
office  and  smokes  cigars  and  talks  politics.  Say,  the  real  war- 
den is  the  little  woman  in  the  rear  room — she's  a  corking  fine 
fellow,  and  knows  everybody,  'cept  the  politicians — they  say 
she  can't  vote — but  she  sure  runs  the  prison  and  that  fine,  too, 
considering  everything.  Well,  they  throw's  the  dope  there,  too, 
and  when  you  know  how  to  get  it,  there  ain't  much  trouble. 
But  you  see  when  I  got  down  to  Jefferson  City  I  thought  I'd 
give  up  and  send  for  the  doctor,  and  tell  him  all  about  it  and 
see  if  he  couldn't  help  me.  I  heard  they  had  a  doctor  and  I 
thought  maybe  he'd  be  a  good  fellow  and  help,  and  I  couldn't 
see  how  I  could  stand  it  any  longer.  But  then,  you  see,  I  got 
lost  this  way.  They  put  me  in  a  receiving  cell,  and  I  laid  down 
for  a  couple  of  hours  waiting  for  him  to  come.  While  I  was 
waiting  there  thinking  I  would  tell  the  doctor,  a  runner  came 
through — one  of  the  trusties,  they  always  bring  news.     "Hist !" 


THE   WRECK.  79 

he  signaled,  did  I  want  anything — no — did  I  use  the  dope — if 
I  did,  he'd  get  a  barrel  of  it  for  me.  What!  good  dope  and  so 
easy — getting  signals  the  first  two  hours — well,  this  is  better 
than  the  doctor — so  I  broke  in  again.  I  soon  realized  that  down 
there  in  Missouri  it  not  only  leaked  in,  but  the  contractors  gave 
it ;  you  see,  they  wanted  extra  work  and  a  fellow  who's  down 
and  out  can  work  better  if  he  gets  the  dope. 

"Jefferson  City  is  just  work  and  dope.  Yes,  we  made  saddle- 
trees and  shoes,  but  the  contractors  got  all  our  money  away 
for  dope  and  commissary — there  wasn't  any  use  working  with- 
out it,  and  you  never  had  anything  when  you  got  through." 

"Were  you  ever  punished?"  asked  the  warden. 

"Well,  I  should  say  so — yet  some  of  them  niggers  need  it. 
You  see  punishment  is  a  different  thing  with  different  people. 
Now,  you  can  cowhide  one  of  them  niggers,  and  they  don't 
really  feel  it,  'cause  they  only  feel  the  cowhiding.  It's  differ- 
ent with  some  of  us — the  lashing  didn't  hurt,  the  welts  lasted 
two  or  three  days — in  a  week  they  were  gone — but  it  was  the 
conditions  of  it." 

"How  do  you  mean?"  I  asked. 

"Well,  't  ain't  pleasant  describing,  but  it's  this.  When  you 
are  to  be  whipped  you  are  called  on  line  when  filing  out  of  the 
shop — one  of  the  foremen  makes  complaint.  Then  you  are 
taken  into  the  yard — all  the  deputies  are  round  the  wall — every- 
body is  staring  at  you — two  little  coon  convicts  come  out  with 
their  switches  and  they  tell  you  to  go  over  to  the  post — a  deputy 
ties  your  hands  above  your  head — then  they  strip  you — it's  that 
that  hurts,  to  be  there  with  all  those  eyes  looking  at  you,  cold 
and  clammy,  with  the  two  black  coons  with  their  whips.  It 
breaks  your  spirit.  What's  the  use  of  trying  to  be  anything 
but  a  brute — it's  all  animal — you  are  just  an  animal.  Let  on 
the  lashes,  they're  the  best  part  of  it;  they  don't  hurt  the  soul. 
The  sooner  they're  over,  the  disgrace  is  over.  The  welts  will 
take  care  of  themselves  and  heal  in  time,  but  never  the  pride, 
never  the  soul  of  the  man.  What  is  it  for?  I  don't  know.  It 
makes  life  not  worth  living — it  makes  you  a  brute.  And  why 
is  here  better  than  Jefferson  City?    Well,  they  think  of  a  man's 


8o  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

soul  here — not  prayer  meeting  kind,  but  you  see  I  could  come 
and  tell  the  Warden,  as  I  am  telling  you — tell  him  all  about  it, 
as  I'm  telling  you.  I  think  the  Warden  is  going  to  tell  Mother, 
so  she'll  understand,  and  maybe  she'll  help  me  when  I  get  out. 
Do  you  think  I  cam  get  better,  Doctor?  You  kind  of  look  as- 
though  you  understood.  Yes — and  you'll  really  be  interested 
to  know?  Well,  you  bet  I'm  going  to,  for  you  see  the  Warden 
cares,  and  oh.  Doctor,  if  that  fellow  down  in  that  first  home 
where  I  went  had  only  cared,  and  somebody  in  some  of  the 
institutions  had  only  cared,  I  wouldn't  be  here  now !  But  I 
guess  it's  not  too  late.  Doctor,  is  it?" 

As  I  put  out  my  hand  to  shake  hands  good-bye,  there  came 
into  the  young  fellow's  eyes  a  thing  which  words  cannot  de- 
scribe. It  was  what  he  lost  when  he  was  thrashed.  He  turned 
and  went  out  the  door. 

The  warden  looked  at  me  and  remarked:  "He  is  telling 
the  truth.  He  has  not  overdrawn  the  conditions  that  exist  in 
prisons  of  this  country  and  the  lack  of  help,  which  is  every- 
where." 


This  is  printed  with  the  consent  of  the  warden  of  the  prison  in 
which  the  prisoner  was  confined  and  with  his  statement  that  it  is  cor- 
rectly told. 


The  Convict  His  Own   Chxtkactor. 


Wild  Oats  that   made  a  Good  Harvest. 


GEORGE  JUNIOR  REPUBLIC. 


CHAPTER  X. 
THE  EDUCATIONAL  ASPECT. 

Industrial  education — modern  penological  thought — eugenics — modern 
education,  control  of  the  wayward  activities  of  the  individual.  Work  to 
some  attainable  end — occupations  available  in  the  community — choice  of 
work  for  institution — educational  need — economic  need — practical  edu- 
cational value.  Selection  of  man  for  special  type  of  work — large  number 
of  small  industries.  Interest  in  work — physical  punishment — stint  with 
wage — state's  control — book  learning — social  intercourse — shortening  of 
period  of  incarceration — best  results  through  combination  of  incentives. 
Residential   trade   school. 

The  reform  of  the  wayward  is  the  aim  of  modern  penology. 
This  wayward  type  must  be  so  changed  by  proper  industrial  edu- 
cation that  conformity  to  the  standards  of  modern  coinmunity 
life  is  possible.  The  correction  of  the  physical  disability,  whether 
congenital  or  acquired,  is  to  be  secured  by  the  adaptation  of  those 
most  approved  principles  of  medical,  surgical  and  psychical  opera- 
tion and  by  the  prevention  and  suppression  of  the  repetition  of 
such  phenomena  by  the  methods  of  modern  eiigenicS'}  There  is 
still  inherent  in  the  practice  of  the  physician  or  eugenicist  a  large 
number  of  cases  with  ailments  which  cannot  be  met  by  any 
known  process  of  medicine  and  its  allied  arts,  and  which  the  regu- 
lations of  eugenics,  expressing  themselves  in  vasectomy^  or 
other  mutilations,  would  only  make  more  desirable  for  incarcera- 
tion or  custodial  control.  The  more  refined  our  social  usages 
become,  the  greater  will  be  the  number  to  whom  conformity 
to  these  usages  will  prove  impossible.  While  the  absolute  exter- 
mination of  this  type  may  eventually  be  secured  through  isola- 
tion, non-propagation  and  the  suppression  of  their  contaminat- 
ing influence  and  finally  death,  still  for  many  generations  there 
must  be  a  large  number  of  these  persons  held  as  public  charges 
over  which  the  state  must  have  absolute  control,  if  not  for  life, 
for  such  a  period  as  shall  ensure  elimination  of  the  danger  to 

'Lombroso,  Caesar,  "Crime,  Its  Causes  and  Remedies,"  pp.  337-9. 
'American   Society   for   Moral   and   Social    Prophyla.xis,   "Proceedings, 
Dec.  13th,  191 1." 


82  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

society  from  their  freedom.  During  this  period  of  incarceration, 
or  custodial  care,  the  constant  endeavor  of  the  state  must  be 
toward  development  in  proportion  as  such  development  is  possi- 
ble— for  the  active  young  man  of  but  slightly  criminal  tenden- 
cies much  can  be  done,  while  for  the  gray  haired  reprobate  little 
of  educational  value  can  be  secured.  The  principles  underlying 
the  education  which  must  be  given  in  the  penal  institutions  need 
be  in  no  way  foreign  to  the  underlying  principles  of  all  modern 
education.^  All  education  to-day  is  realized  to  be  the  control  of 
the  wayward  activities  of  the  individual  so  that  they  are  brought 
into  as  perfect  a  relationship  with  the  social  environment  as  pos- 
sible ;  the  training  must  be  through  actual  contact  with  environ- 
ment, and  the  school  itself  must  not  be  isolated  mentally,  though 
it  may  be  physically,  from  the  general  social  environment:  this 
conceives  of  the  school  in  that  broad  sense  in  which  it  is  a  part 
of  the  community  in  which  the  more  mature  help  the  less  mature 
to  develop  themselves  'into  a  more  perfect  harmony  with  their 
social  and  spiritual  environment.  Development  and  self-expres- 
sion in  work  is  inherent  in  this  modern  doctrine,-  while  not  only 
the  developmental  value  but  also  the  practical  value  of  the  use 
of  interest  becomes  essential.-'' 

A  penal  institution  cannot  better  serve  its  function,  as  viewed 
by  modern  penologists,  than  to  incorporate  into  its  activities  the 
fundamental  basis  of  modern  education.  Work  to  some  attain- 
able end  must  be  the  fundamental  purpose ;  the  individual's  in- 
terest in  the  work  must  be  secured  so  as  to  hold  the  attention 
and  produce  the  best  result  by  a  definite  end,  made  tangible,  as  a 
logical  result  of  a  sequence  of  actions  having  in  them  value  out 
of  which  the  end  can  grow.  The  end  must  be  immediate  and 
again  distant,  and  must  be  apparent  both  to  the  individual  pris- 
oner and  to  his  master.  Work  which  brings  a  slight  reward,  in 
tangible  form,  immediately  to  the  individual  will  tend  to  bring 
from  him  exertion  and  perfect  him  in  the  operation,  whether  the 

^Howerth,   I.   W.,   "The    Social   Aim   in   Education,"   5th    Year   Book 
National  Herbart  Society,  pp.  69-108. 
"Dewey,  John,  "School  and  Society." 
^Dewey,  John,  "Interest  in  relation  to  the  Will." 


THE    EDUCATIONAL    ASPECT.  83 

reward  be  the  completion  of  some  article  which  may  be  possessed 
by  the  individual,  or  simply  a  sign  or  token — a  plug  of  tobacco 
or  a  small  coin  which  can  be  put  to  immediate  use.  The  more 
distant  end  requires  the  work  to  be  such  that  at  the  completion 
of  the  term  set,  the  convict  shall  have  attained  mastery  over  the 
material  and  himself,  and  have  learned  an  art  which  may  be 
used  to  definite  ends  in  the  future.  The  choice  of  work  must 
therefore  depend  primarily  upon  its  value  as  an  aid  after  dis- 
charge, and  as  an  aid  to  securing  discharge  from  the  institution. 
The  occupations  available  in  the  community,  in  which  the  type 
of  individual  being  trained  could  be  employed,  must  be  ascer- 
tained in  a  penal  institution  as  definitely  as  in  any  training 
school.  Practically  every  community  conducts  industries  pro- 
viding for  the  ordinary  household  wants  of  man,  clothing,  boots 
and  shoes,  baking,  farming  and  the  like ;  while  in  some  communi- 
ties special  industries  predominate  and  create  demand  for 
certain  types  of  labor,  some  for  men  and  some  for  women.  The 
choice  of  work  in  the  institution  must  therefore  be  along  the  line 
of  the  general  household  wants  and  the  particular  or  special  type 
of  industry  in  the  community.  The  manufacture  of  commodi- 
ties for  household  and  personal  consumption  has  value  from  the 
educational  standpoint  and  it  is  just  those  commodities  of  which 
the  "state  use"  market  has  need.  It  is  possible  therefore  to  so 
adjust  the  educational  need  and  the  economic  need  that  they  coin- 
cide. The  type  of  industry  which  meets  the  educational  need  of 
the  prisoner  may  be  either  within  the  first  or  second  group.  Should 
the  type  of  commodity  to  be  produced  be  such  that  only  a  small 
quantity  could  be  consumed  by  the  state  and  the  subdivisions  of 
the  state  in  proportion  to  the  pro9uction  necessitated  by  the 
need  of  educating  men  along  specific  lines,  a  more  difficult  prob- 
lem is  presented — farm  products,  boots  and  shoes,  and  textiles 
might  be  examples.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  in  a 
great  state  like  New  York,^  with  its  many  industries  and  many 
times  greater  demand  for  the  prison  goods  than  the  prisons  can 
produce,  little  difficulty  is  experienced  in  such  an  adjustment. 

'Final  Report  of  the  Commissioners  to  Examine  the  Department  of 
State  Prisons,  New  York,   191 1. 


84  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

In  a  distinctly  agricultural  state,  or  a  state  with  one  dominant 
industry,  the  difficulty  may  very  definitely  present  itself.  The 
fact  that  there  are  certain  definite  localities  for  certain  indus- 
tries suggests  interstate  commerce  of  their  products  and  makes 
necessary  the  suggestion  of  exchange  between  states  on  some 
basis  similar  to  the  one  outlined  in  the  last  chapter.  The  amount 
of  such  interchange  necessary  to  meet  the  educational  ideal 
would  not  be  great,  and  probably  would  not  affect  the  educa- 
tional status  vitally  if  it  were  not  resorted  to  at  all.  Again  the 
difficulty  might  be  met  by  dividing  the  industries  into  their  own 
subdivisions — as  agriculture  into  dairy  work,  herding,  road- 
building,  wagon-making  and  a  thousand  and  one  jack-of-all- 
trades  which  a  successful  farmer  must  know.  It  is  probable 
also  that  even  in  a  manufacturing  state,  such  as  Massachusetts 
or  Rhode  Island,  the  farm  work,  with  its  manifold  sides,  would 
have  more  practical  educationai  value  than  either  textile  work  or 
boots  and  shoes  and  should,  according  to  educational  standards, 
be  substituted  for  them.  Certain  it  is  that  the  inter-state  ex- 
change is  practical  and  possible  but  will  possibly  not  have  to 
come  because  of  the  need  of  the  penal  institutions,  but  because  of 
the  need  of  the  trade-schools  of  a  non-penal  character,  or  be- 
cause these  trade-schools  will  in  the  near  future  add  and  multi- 
ply the  difficulties  of  trade  education  in  the  present  penal  insti- 
tutions. 

The  selection  of  the  man  for  the  special  type  of  work  must 
follow  the  selection  of  work  for  the  institution.  The  man's 
previous  experience  and  training  must  naturally  be  the  basis  for 
the  selection  and  the  work  in  which  he  is  engaged  be  either 
identical  or  similar  to  that  in  which  he  has  formerly  been  em- 
ployed. But  the  man's  previous  occupation  must  be  so  bent  to 
his  work  that  he  will  be  assured  of  a  job  upon  leaving  the  insti- 
tution and  the  matter  of  adaptation,  difficult  as  it  may  be,  must 
be  gone  through  in  the  penal  institution  rather  than  after  leaving 
the  institution.  The  requirement  of  a  large  number  of  small  in- 
dustries therefore  has  a  distinctly  educational  value  in  that  they 
are  much  easier  to  adapt  both  to  the  man's  work  before  coming 
in  and  to  what  he  will  do  upon  going  out. 


Cutting. 


THE    EDUCATIONAL    ASIMXT.  85 

Interest  in  the  tcork  is  absolutely  essential  if  results  are  to  be 
secured :  the  prison  contractors  have  endeavored  to  secure  this 
interest  by  a  variety  of  experiments  and  with  results  that  prove 
the  contention  of  the  educator.  Physical  punishment,  such  as 
the  water-cure,  straight- jacket,  and  the  solitary,  together  with 
the  lash,  have  forced  men  through  fear  to  labor,  but  to  labor  in 
such  a  way  that  they  require  constant  guarding  so  that  they  do 
not  destroy  material  or  wreak  their  vengeance  upon  some  in- 
structor or  overseer.  The  stint  ivith  zvage,  as  suggested  by 
Lincoln,  has  been  substituted  for  the  severe  punishment  with 
the  result  that  efficiency  is  secured.^ 

The  stint  is  supposedly  the  average  that  the  convict  can  do, 
though  often  it  is  the  average  of  a  grade,  the  grades  being  regu- 
lated by  the  physical  ability  of  the  convict.  Some  institutions- 
make  allowance  to  the  convict  in  wage  for  the  stint  and  also 
for  overtime,  while  others  only  allow  for  overtime.  A  more  in- 
genious device  is  found  in  the  movable  stint  where  the  men  in- 
creasing their  output  over  the  previous  day  are  allowed  extra 
tobacco,  while  all  the  men  are  graded  according  to  their  output, 
and  those  ranking  among  the  first  fifty  per  cent,  are  per- 
mitted to  receive  dividends  based  upon  the  output  of  the  whole 
shop  and  an  extra  dividend  is  given  to  the  first  twenty-five.* 
While  in  the  instance  where  this  scheme  is  in  vogue  the 
dividends  paid  are  only  a  fraction  of  the  profits  made  by  the  con- 
tractor as  the  result  of  the  speeding  up,  and  are  the  difference 
between  what  the  state  should  receive  and  what  the  state  does 
receive  under  the  system,  it  illustrates  a  method  of  getting  results 
by  the  securing  of  interest  through  a  tangible  reward,  even 
when  the  reward  is  not  commensurate  with  the  work.  The  send- 
ing of  the  earnings  to  wife  and  children  adds  greatly  to  the  in- 
terest and  is  a  further  incentive  for  good  work.  One  institu- 
tion pays  the  boys  the  supposed  value  of  their  labor  and  requires 
the  boys  to  pay  regularly  a  certain  amount  for  board  and  lodg- 

'Page  9- 

'Maryland,     Baltimore     City    Jail;     Wisconsin,     Reformatory,     Green 
Bay,  etc. 

''Wisconsin,  Waupun  Prison ;  Maryland  State  Prison,  etc. 
'Rhode  Island,  Howard   Prison. 


86  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

ing.^  Other  institutions  limit  the  use  of  the  money  to  commis- 
sary,^ washing,  or  extra  shaves,*  while  the  George  Junior  Republic* 
combines  all  three  features  in  the  natural  use  of  money  earned.^ 
The  Iwahig  Penal  Colony  in  the  Phillipines  presents  a  complete 
industrial  community."  The  substitution  of  the  state's  control  for  . 
the  contractor's  control  is  another  subtle  method  of  securing  in- 
terest. Another  incentive  is  the  Saturday  half  holiday  for  base- 
ball games  between  the  shops — the  prison  contractor  who  origin- 
ally suggested  this  did  so  because  he  found  results  of  financial 
value  to  himself.  Furthermore  the  band  playing  on  the  parade 
ground  does  not  lessen  the  speed  of  the  operative's  work.  What 
other  devices  for  producing  interest  in  monotonous  work  will  be 
introduced  in  the  future  will  depend  upon  the  careful  study  of 
fatigue,  the  opportunity  for  which  this  field  opens  new  and  attrac- 
tive vistas. 

Book  learning  is  limited  in  the  penal  institutions  to-day  to  the 
English  courses  in  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic,^  to  the  use  of 
the  library^  and  to  permission  to  take  correspondence  courses.^ 
The  correlation  between  the  industrial  training  and  book  learn- 
ing appears  to  be  unknown — the  introduction  of  moving  pictures^" 
into  the  prisons  explaining  industrial  life  is  the  first  real  step  in 
that  direction,  while  plays  have  been  given  by  professionals 
within  the  prison  walls. ^^ 

Social  intercourse  between  the  prisoners  has  been  developed 
with  the  growth  of  the  industrial  system,  and  the  falling-away 
of  the  solitary  system.  The  relation  of  convicts  to  each  other 
and  the  foreman  in  the  workshops,  on  the  farm  and  in  the  mines 
is  similar  to  those  of  ordinary  free  workingmen.     In  the  South- 

^Wisconsin,  Reformatory,  Green  Bay. 
"Michigan,  Jackson  Prison. 
^Maryland   Penitentiary. 

"George,  William,  Jr.,  "The  George  Junior  Republic,  Its  History  and 
Ideals,"  pp.  1-326. 

^Snedden,  D.  J.,  "American  Juvenile  Reform  Schools." 

"Lamb,  C.  H.,  "Unprinted  Report." 

'New  York  State,  Sing  Sing  Prison. 

^Maryland  Penitentiary. 

''Minnesota  State  Prison. 

"Kansas  State  Penitentiary. 

"California,  San  Quentin  Prison. 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   ASPECT,  87 

ern  coal  mines  the  miners  are  free  to  hob-nob  while  at  work  in 
the  mines  and  in  the  evening  lounge  about  the  verandas  in  their 
striped  suits  and  room  together  in  the  big  dormitories.'  The 
evil  results  are  in  proportion  to  the  lack  of  supervision — good 
supervision  may  make  this  seeming  evil  to  work  for  good. 

Shortening  of  the  period  of  incarceration-  is  the  result  of  good 
work  in  many  institutions  and  especially  on  road  work,  and  cer- 
tain it  is  that  the  indeterminate  sentence  in  which  release  is  based 
upon  the  growth  of  efficiency  in  the  convict  cannot  fail  to  secure 
the  interest  desired. 

The  best  results  would  naturally  be  obtained  through  a  com- 
bination of  a  number  of  these  incentiz'es — all  of  which  might 
well  be  applied.  These  should  include  shortening  of  the  inde- 
terminate sentence,  the  grade  system  in  respect  to  clothing,  food 
and  lodging,  and  money  reward  with  use  of  the  money  reward  to 
certain  definite  ends.  The  indeterminate  sentence  should  be 
really  indeterminate  and  his  release  depend  upon  the  actual  de- 
velopment and  self-control  acquired  by  the  individual  prisoner. 
The  grading  should  be  based  on  those  outward  signs  of  good 
conduct  which  are  apparent  to  the  general  community  in  the 
prison,  and  the  money  reward  should  be  in  proportion  to  the 
productive  value  of  the  goods. 


A  residential  trade-school,  in  which  there  is  control  by  the 
head  of  the  institution  of  the  individuals  who  make  up  the 
school,  seems  to  be  the  type  of  community  toward  which  the 
penal  institutions  are  heading,  with  the  emphasis  on  the  educa- 
tional value  of  the  work  but  with  productive  work  for  the  state. 
The  environment  must  be  controlled  but  need  not  be  artificial  or 
dissimilar  from  that  of  a  normal  community  where  the  spirit  of 
the  community  life  tends  ever  to  the  improvement  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  there  is  a  realization  that  the  most  selfish  aims  of  any 
individual  to  free  himself  from  the  restrictions  can  best  be  at- 

'Survey,  Jan.  6th,   191 1,  p.   1547. 

^U.    S.    Bureau    of    Information,     Circular     of     Information — no.     16, 
1875— P-  44- 


88  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

tained  by  helping  the  whole  community  and  himself  as  a  part  of 
it  to  a  better  manhood. 

In  depicting  the  rosy  future  when  there  will  combine  the 
best  knowledge  and  practice  of  all  the  institutions  we  must  not 
lose  sight  of  the  horror,  the  degradation,  and  the  crime-breeding 
atmosphere  which  surround  these  poor,  desperate  creatures  who 
inhabit  the  hell-like  institutions  which  to-day  stand  as  a  blot 
upon  our  Christianity  and  our  civilization. 


PART  VII 

METHODS  OF  REFORM. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

MOVEMENTS  FOR  REFORM. 

Organized  movements  for  penological  reform — American  Prison  As- 
sociation— National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction.  Propagandist 
associations.  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor.  National  Committee 
on  Prison  Labor.     National  commission. 

Organized  movements  for  penological  reform  have  not  been 
lacking.  The  actual  conditions  in  the  prisons  made  known  by 
personal  experience  to  such  reformers  as  the  Quakers^  naturally 
led  to  the  appreciation  of  the  need  of  organized  reform.  The 
movement  to  evangelize  the  unfortunate  inhabitants  of  these 
places  sent  preachers  and  workers  into  the  prisons  to  carry  a 
spiritual  message  and  their  protest  against  the  conditions  found 
reached  the  ear  of  the  community.  The  organization  of  these 
elements  into  associations  which  would  do  a  personal  work  for 
the  convict  has  been  the  result.  The  rise  in  1776  of  such  an 
association  in  Pennsylvania  was  followed  by  a  similar  organiza- 
tion in  London  in  181 5,  in  France  in  1819,  in  Boston  in  1824 
and  in  New  York  in  1846.  These  prisoners'  aid  associa- 
tions were  given  power  from  the  state  to  do  what  was  necessary 
to  aid  the  prisoner  to  a  better  life,  and  through  their  activities 
religious  work  in  many  of  the  prisons  has  been  introduced  and 
carried  on  and  the  moral  conditions  improved.  Reforms  of  ad- 
ministration have  been  brought  about  through  the  moral  better- 
ment of  the  institutions,  and  the  moral  influence  upon  the  prison 
administrators  of  these  friendly  visitors  has  done  much  to  pre- 
vent malfeasance  in  office.  In  the  reports  and  magazines  pub- 
lished by  these  organizations  the  industrial  side  of  the  prisons 
is  touched  upon  often,  and  definite  investigation  and  work  for 
betterment  of  conditions  was  pushed  for  a  limited  time,  but  the 
pressure  of  work  of  a  personal  nature  for  the  convicts  left  little 
or  no  time  for  development  of  this  phase  of  work  which  was  sec- 
ondary to  the  aims  of  the  organizations.     Their  failure  to  accom- 

'Peirce,  B.  K.,  "A  Half  Century  with  Juvenile  Delinquents."  p.  31. 


90  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

plish  results  in  this  industrial  side  finds  its  parallel  in  the  chari- 
table work  down  to  recent  times,  when  the  emphasis  was  placed 
upon  work  for  the  individual  rather  than  upon  the  reform  of 
industrial  conditions. 

The  earlier  societies  were  followed  by  a  number  of  similar 
organizations  for  the  aid  of  prisoners  in  various  parts  of  the 
country  which  struggle  on  to  do  the  local  work,  coming  together 
once  a  year  for  the  discussion  of  methods  in  the  American  Prison 
Association,  which  acts  as  a  get-together  for  the  prison  admin- 
istrators and  officers  of  these  prisoners'  aid  societies.  Its  work 
is  that  of  conference  and  follows  the  usual  lines  taken  by  asso- 
ciations of  factory  inspectors,  chiefs  of  police  and  other  civil 
officials  who  find  it  mutually  advantageous  to  meet  and  get  ac- 
quainted. The  result  is  the  creation  of  interest  to  some  degree 
in  the  problem  itself  in  the  political  appointee  who  has  come  to 
office  with  little  training  and  no  specific  knowledge.  The  repu- 
tation of  good  administrators  thus  reaches  beyond  the  state  in 
which  they  are  located  and  transfers  to  better  positions  are  some- 
times the  result.  The  inclusion  of  all  persons  connected  in  any 
way  with  the  prison  administration  naturally  makes  eligible  for 
membership  the  business  man  who  is  a  prison  contractor  as  well 
as  the  expert  in  prison  building  and  the  salesman  for  companies 
doing  large  business  with  prisons  in  respect  to  commodities.  An 
opportunity  is  thus  offered  to  the  new  political  appointee  to 
come  in  contact  with  men  whom  it  will  be  to  his  personal  advant- 
age to  know.  This  association  joins  with  similar  associations 
from  other  countries  every  five  years  in  an  International  Prison 
Congress. 

Under  the  impetus  of  the  first  burst  of  enthusiasm  the  incor- 
porators of  the  American  Prison  Association  in  1870  passed  a 
remarkable  platform  and  statement  of  principles  upon  which 
they  anticipated  that  the  association's  work  would  be  based, 
hardly  realizing  that  the  rapidly  shifting  membership  and  the 
lack  of  any  machinery  in  the  organization  for  anything  but  a 
"talk  fest"  made  such  resolutions  of  little  real  value  except  as 
something  to  be  shown  perspective  members  and  the  associa- 
tion's critics. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    REFORM.  9I 

Prison  labor  was  a  matter  of  resolution  by  these  founders, 
who  held : 

"Industrial  training  should  have  both  a  higher  develop- 
ment and  a  greater  breadth  than  has  heretofore  been,  or 
is  now,  commonly  given  to  it  in  our  prisons.  Work  is 
no  less  an  auxiliary  to  virtue  than  it  is  a  means  of  sup- 
port. Steady,  active,  honorable  labor  is  the  basis  of  all 
reformatory  discipline.  It  not  only  aids  reformation,  but 
is  essential  to  it.  It  was  a  maxim  with  Howard,  'make 
men  diligent  and  they  will  be  honest' — a  maxim  which  this 
congress  regards  as  eminently  sound  and  practical. 

While  industrial  labor  in  prisons  is  of  the  highest  im- 
portance and  utility  to  the  convict,  and  by  no  means  in- 
jurious to  the  laborer  outside,  we  regard  the  contract  sys- 
tem of  prison  labor,  as  now  commonly  practiced  in  our 
country,  as  prejudicial  alike  to  discipline,  finance  and  the 
reformation  of  the  prisoner,  and  sometimes  injurious  to 
the  interest  of  the  free  laborer."^ 

The  American  Social  Service  Association  undertook  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  principles  of  prison  labor  in  its  meetings.^  These 
discussions  were  from  the  broad  standpoint  by  men  of  eminence, 
but  the  need  of  definite  and  special  work  upon  this  and  a  number 
of  other  equally  important  subjects  dealing  with  the  eleemosy- 
nary institutions  led  to  the  calling  of  special  conferences  in  con- 
nection with  the  social  science  society;  thus  developed  the  Na- 
tional Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction.^  The  recurring 
discussion  in  the  annual  meetings  of  this  association  has  created 
a  sentiment  for  constructive  reform,  but  the  pressing  needs  for 
agitation  from  a  still  larger  viewpoint  for  the  establishment  of 
central  boards  of  control  and  the  elimination  of  politics  from  all 
eleemosynary  institutions,  has  left  the  definite  propaganda  con- 
nected with  prisons  for  some  definite  propagandist  association 
to  undertake. 

Propagandist  associations  for  dealing  with  the  industrial 
phases  of  prison  reform  are  not  new  or  limited  to  this  country. 
As  early  as  1878  England  had  a  prison  labor  reform  association 

'Declaration   of    Principles,    American    Prison    Association    1870 — Sec. 
xvi-xvii,  Prison  Reform  and  Criminal  Law,  p.  41. 
^Journal   of    Social    Science — Vol.    VI. 
'Proceedings,  First  Conference  of  Charities — New  York,  May,  1874. 


92  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

which  investigated  conditions  and  worked  for  the  lessening  of 
competition  with  free  industries  by  the  employment  of  prisoners 
on  public  works  and  ways.  Germany  imitated  England  two 
years  later  with  a  prison  Society  for  Public  Account  which  seems 
to  have  been  responsible  for  much  of  the  reform  inaugurated  in 
the  German  prisons  at  that  time.  In  America,  organized  labor^ 
continued  its  propaganda  for  years  without  co-operating  with 
the  penologists,  the  manufacturing  interests,  or  the  public,  but 
in  1886  the  National  Anti-convict  Contract  Association  was  or- 
ganized which  took  for  its  propaganda  the  defence  of  the  market 
by  the  curtailment  of  the  contractor's  ability  to  sell  the  prison 
goods.  It  advocated  the  branding  of  convict  goods,  or  the  re- 
quiring of  license,  and  introduced  into  the  state  legislatures  and 
Congress  bills  restricting  sale.  Realizing  the  significance  of 
such  legislation  and  the  result  which  would  follow  from  the  ab- 
solute curtailment  of  the  contract  system,  at  that  time  almost 
universally  in  vogue,  all  the  wardens  of  the  country  were  called 
upon  to  bring  their  influence  against  the  bill  in  Congress  and, 
despite  the  power  of  the  National  Anti-convict  Contract  Asso- 
ciation and  the  Knights  of  Labor,  the  prison  wardens  and  the 
contractors,  who  brought  influence  to  bear,  stopped  Congres- 
sional action.  The  agitation  led  to  the  introduction  by  Mr. 
Brockway  at  the  meeting  of  the  National  Prison  Association  in 
Boston,  July,  1888,  and  the  passage  of  the  following  resolution  i^ 

"That  the  Executive  Committee  of  this  association  confer  with 
the  governors  of  states  throughout  the  Union  and  with  their 
concurrence  call  a  conference  to  be  held  at  such  time  and  place 
as  may  be  thought  best,  early  in  December  of  this  year,  to  con- 
sider the  prison  labor  problem." 

The  resolution  found  its  place  alongside  the  resolutions  passed 
by  the  same  association  in  1870  and  was  marked  by  a  tombstone, 
not  a  milestone,  in  the  progress  of  the  society's  history. 

The  labor  reformers,  headed  by  John  T.  McDonough  of  New 
York,  brought  forth  in  the  State  Convention  of  1894,  a  construc- 
tive program  which,  as  we  have  already  mentioned,  was  seized 

'Lincoln,  C.  Z.,  "Constitutional  History  of  New  York  State" — vol.  Ill, 
pp.  247-297. 

"Proceedings,  National  Prison  Association,  1888 — p.  65. 


MOVEMENTS    EUR    REFORM.  93 

Upon  by  Elihu  Root  and  others  who  made  the  suggestions  a 
reality,  but  no  record  has  been  left  of  the  inlluence  of  any  other 
association  than  that  of  organized  labor.  The  solutions  suggested 
by  this  Anti-convict  Contract  Association,  however,  were  in- 
corporated into  the  report  of  the  Industrial  Commission  in  1900 
and  continue  to  be  found  in  the  bill  annually  introduced  into 
Congress  to  make  constitutional  the  state  branding  and  licensing 
laws.  The  promotion  of  the  movement  to  assure  the  passage 
of  this  bill  has  been  centered  in  the  National  Free  Labor  Asso- 
ciation of  New  York  City — an  association  of  the  paper  variety 
which  has  brought  to  light  and  published  much  material  expos- 
ing conditions  in  a  controversial  manner,  yet  with  remarkable 
force  and  general  accuracy.  No  attempt  is  made  by  this  asso- 
ciation to  disguise  the  fact  that  the  sources  of  information  upon 
which  its  reports  are  based  are  supplied  by  those  business  inter- 
ests which  claim  a  just  complaint  against  the  contract  system  in 
that  the  injury  to  their  business  through  the  low  price  of  con- 
vict goods  injures  their  employees  and  through  them  the  public 
in  general.  The  activity  of  the  association  in  connection  with 
the  "National  Branding  Bill"  results  in  the  bill  being  placed  con- 
stantly before  the  members  of  Congress  and  the  public  and — 
while  in  itself  such  legislation  is  not  constructive  and  is  framed 
to  meet  the  peculiar  needs  of  the  manufacturing  element  of  the 
community — still  the  association  has  brought  the  problem  to  the 
attention  of  the  public  as  did  the  Anti-convict  Contract  Associa- 
tion a  decade  before. 

Conference  between  those  to  whose  attention  had  been  called 
the  need  for  active  reform  of  prison  labor  conditions  resulted  in 
the  filing  of  a  request  by  the  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  with 
the  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor  that  it  investigate 
these  conditions.  The  report  of  this  investigation  resulted  in 
the  recommendation  by  John  Williams,  Commissioner  of  Labor,^ 
that  such  a  commission  be  appointed  by  Governor  Hughes,  but 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  Governor  a  voluntary  association  known 

'New  York  State  Commissioner  of  Labor,  "Report  1909,"  p.  45. 


94  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

as  the  National  Committee  on  Prison  Labor^  was  incorporated 
and  upon  its  board  were  those  who  represented  the  different 
phases  of  the  problem  and  could  contribute  most.  The  investi- 
gation made  by  the  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor  was 
continued  and  extended  to  be  of  national  scope,  and  the  com- 
mittee from  time  to  time  reported  its  findings  to  the  labor  com- 
mittee of  Congress,  the  legislatures  of  special  states,  the  gov- 
ernors and  other  administrators  (see  appendix).  The  commit- 
tee took  up  the  work  which  the  American  Prison  Association  laid 
out  for  itself  in  1888  in  its  resolution  for  conference  with  the 
governors  for  the  consideration  of  the  prison  labor  problem.  The 
establishment  of  a  meeting  of  the  governors  once  a  year  in 
the  Governors'  Conference,  made  possible  the  calling  of  the 
governors'  attention  to  this  subject  in  a  way  which  accomplished 
results.  Thomas  R.  Sheer,  Chairman  of  the  National  Com- 
mittee on  Prison  Labor,  sent  the  following  communication  to 
the  Governors'  Conference  at  Frankfort,  Ky.,  November  28th, 
1910. 

To  THE  Governors'  Conference^ 
Frankfort,  Ky. 

Gentlemen : 

The  prison  industries  in  the  different  states  present  one 
of  the  most  difficult  problems  with  which  governors  have 
to  deal,  and  by  which  the  efficiency  of  their  administration 
is  often  put  to  a  test.  Failure  in  prison  administration 
is  sure  to  result  in  the  friction  between  free  labor  and 
prison  labor  which  so  often  is  an  underlying  cause  of 
political  discontent. 

The  lack  of  reliable  information  as  to  conditions  in 
prison  industries  became  apparent  to  the  National  Com- 
mittee on  Prison  Labor  while  conducting  its  investigations 
and  was  reiterated  at  the  International  Prison  Congress 
recently  held  in  Washington,  D.  C.  Until  this  informa- 
tion is  made  public  through  accredited  agencies  no  ade- 
quate solution  of  the  problem  is  possible. 

'Organization  Committee : 

Thomas  R.  Slicer;  Helen  Varick  Boswell ;  Mrs.  J.  Ellen  Foster; 
R.  Montgomery  Schell ;  Leslie  Willis  Sprague ;  Mrs.  Eva  Mc- 
Donald Valesh ;  E.  Stagg  Whitin ;  Miss  Mary  Wood. 


Thomas  R.  Slicer. 
Chairman,    National   Committee  on   Prison   Labor. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    REFORM.  95 

The  time  is  ripe  for  a  nation-wide  study  of  the  subject. 
The  following  recommendations  may  therefore  be  in  place: 

First,  that  reports  of  penal  and  correctional  institutions 
include  full  information  regarding  these  industries,  while 
contracts  for  the  employment  of  prisoners  be  considered 
public  documents. 

Second,  that  a  commission  be  created  to  complete  the 
work  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission  of  1900 
by  investigating  the  conditions  under  which  industries  in 
the  state  and  county  penal  institutions  are  being  conducted 
and  by  recommending  a  constructive  policy  for  penal 
administration  which  shall  ensure  justice  to  both  the  free 
and  the  convict  laborer. 

Trusting  for  favorable  consideration  of  these  recom- 
mendations, we  remain. 

Respectfully, 
For  the  Executive  Commiteee, 

Thomas  R.  Slicer, 

Chairman. 

From  the  National  Committee  on  Prison  Labor. 

The  matter  was  placed  on  the  program  of  the  next  annual  con- 
ference at  Spring  Lake  and  resulted  in  the  preparation  of  a 
symposium  by  Governor  Mann  of  Virginia^  and  the  compilation 
by  the  National  Committee  on  Prison  Labor  of  Party  Platforms, 
Governors'  Messages  and  Legislation  of  191 1  in  regard  to  the 
subject.-  Governor  West  of  Oregon  prepared  an  able  paper, 
and  the  discussion  at  the  Conference  resulted  in  the  coopera- 
tion of  the  governors  in  the  general  movement  for  reform 
in  this  direction.  The  results  will  find  their  direct  reflection  in 
the  recommendations  of  the  governors  to  their  own  legislatures 
and  the  ensuing  legislation. 

Nation-wide  agitation  is  the  direct  result  of  such  a  Governors' 
Conference ;  the  indirect  result  is  the  bringing  to  the  attention  of 
the  national  government  the  need  for  broad  investigation  upon  its 
part.  The  United  States  Attorney  General,  Hon.  George  W. 
Wickersham,  recommended  in  his  annual  report  of  1911^  to  Con- 

'Hardy,  R.  B.,  "A  Digest  of  the  Laws  and  Practices  of  all  the  States 
of  the  Union  in  reference  to  the  Employment  of  Convicts,"  published  by 
the  Superintendent  of  Public  Printing,  Richmond. 

^Appendix  II. 

^The  Attorney  General  of  the  United  States,  "Annual  Report  for  the 
Year  191 1,"  p.  89. 


96  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

gress  a  national  commission  to  investigate  penal  conditions,  and 
a  bill  has  been  introduced  into  Congress  to  that  end. 

The  function  of  the  National  Committee  on  Prison  Labor  is 
similar  to  that  of  the  National  Child  Labor  Committee  in  its  work 
of  propaganda;  leaving  to  state  and  national  investigations  with 
official  standing,  the  broad  statistical  reporting  and  tabulating, 
it  defines  the  underlying  principles  upon  which  reform  must  be 
based  and  brings  these  before  the  associations  for  discussion,  and 
recommends  to  legislative  committees  constructive  legislation 
based  on  thorough  investigation  of  local  conditions.  The  request 
for  reports  based  upon  preliminary  investigations  and  containing 
suggestions  as  to  constructive  remedies  have  come  from  numerous 
boards  of  managers  and  officials  and  have  been  acted  upon  in 
conformance  with  the  wishes  of  these  officials.  A  report  of 
this  type  was  released  December  28th,  191 1,  by  Governor  Croth- 
ers,  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Maryland 
House  of  Correction — it  has  been  inserted  in  the  appendix. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  TREND  OF  REFORM. 

What  to  do  about  it — model  law  impossible — possible  to  lay  down 
certain  principles — central  bureau  of  clearance — selection  of  its  members — 
bureau  judicial — prevent  political  pressure  by  recall  or  by  list — methods 
of  report  and  accounting.     The  answer. 

"What  to  hell  are  you  going  to  do  about  it"?  remarked  the 
political  boss  of  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  when  the  investigation 
by  the  Civic  Federation  proved  that  that  city  was  selling  its  con- 
victs for  six  cents  a  day,  under  a  contract  which  gave  the  power 
of  punishment  into  the  hands  of  the  contractor.  What  to  do 
about  it  is  the  practical  proposition  before  practical  reformers. 
The  reason  reforms  are  so  often  a  failure  is  that  we  start  to 
do  before  we  think  of  what  we  are  doing  and  run  amuck  of 
political  conditions  with  no  instrument  in  our  hands,  with  which 
to  fight  the  well-organized  forces  of  corruption. 

To  fight  without  an  adequate  weapon  is  often  worse  than 
to  fight  without  any  at  all  and  to  have  a  sword  where  a  pistol 
is  needed  means  that  attack  is  simply  foolhardy.  To  put  in 
the  legislature  of  any  state  half-baked  legislation,  showing  pique 
or  class  irritation,  or  even  to  carry  over  a  full-rounded  program 
which  is  fully  adequate  in  one  state  into  another  in  which  it  is 
not,  is  proof  of  not  knowing  what  to  do. 

A  model  law  which  would  apply  in  all  states  and  make  their 
systems  uniform  is  the  ideal  lying  behind  movements  in  certain 
lines  for  uniform  legislation  and  presents  an  attractive  side  to 
the  reformer  in  a  nation-wide  movement.  Uniformity  may  be 
secured  as  to  the  hours  of  labor,  the  conditions  of  divorce,  but 
not  as  to  the  methods  of  administratively  carrying  out  the  pro- 
visions of  the  statute.  It  is  equally  easy  to  provide  a  uniform 
regulation  in  the  negation  that  the  labor  of  convicts  should  not 
be  contracted  for  or  leased  or  the  products  allowed  to  reach  the 
open  market.  Absolute  uniformity  is  impossible  in  the  more 
positive  legislation  which  provides  that  the  convicts  shall  work 


9$  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

and  the  products  of  their  labor  shall  be  consumed  by  the  state 
and  subdivisions.  The  drafting  of  a  model  law  to  meet  the 
needs  growing  out  of  the  differing  conditions  found  in  the  differ- 
ent states  is  impossible,  but  it  is  definitely  possible  to  lay  dotvn 
certain  principles  which  should  be  applied  to  the  local  conditions 
in  the  drafting  of  satisfactory  legislation. 

The  principles  underlying  prison  labor  reform  are  to  be  found 
in  the  establishment  of  a  central  bureau  of  clearance  between 
the  productive  side  of  the  state's  productive  institutions  and  the 
maintenance  and  supply  departments,  under  state,  county  or 
municipal  control.  This  central  bureau  of  clearance  must  have 
power  to  prohibit  all  purchases  of  goods  in  the  open  market  that 
can  be  manufactured  by  the  state's  productive  institutions — such 
control  to  be  based  upon  estimates  and  budgets  filed  long  enough 
before  the  demand  to  make  possible  the  manufacture  of  the  arti- 
cles for  the  fulfillment  of  the  order.  The  board  in  turn  must 
have  power  to  designate  from  a  standardized  list  of  articles, 
the  manufacture  of  which  will  meet  the  educational  needs  of  the 
institutions,  just  which  shall  be  produced,  their  grade  and  quan- 
tity. The  board  should  also  have  power  to  regulate  the  price 
at  which  the  exchange  should  be  made,  based  as  nearly  as  possi- 
ble upon  the  varying  market  price. 

The  composition  of  this  bureau  must  vary  in  accordance  with 
the  method  of  control  existing  over  the  institutions,  but  two 
methods  of  the  selection  of  its  members  are  in  practice ;  the  first 
being  to  have  represented  on  it  all  those  interests  that  are  affected 
by  its  regulations;  the  second  a  judicial  or  disinterested  group 
of  individuals  before  whom  experts  must  be  called,  but  upon 
whom  the  final  decision  rests.  The  combination  of  these  two 
types,  though  in  existence,^  has  been  found  to  have  neither  the 
expedition  of  the  first  type  nor  the  working  force  of  the  second. 
The  bureau  of  the  judicial  type  has  the  advantage  of  being  free 
from  the  petty  jealousies  and  rivalries  existing  between  depart- 
ments and  the  institutions,  and  the  charges  of  biased  decisions. 
The  method  of  securing  the  personnel  of  the  bureaus  should  be 
guarded  by  every  known  device  to  prevent  political  pressure; 

^New   York   State    Board   of   Classification. 


THE   TREND   OF    REFORM.  99 

this  might  take  the  form  in  the  radical  Western  states  of  appoint- 
ment by  the  Governor  but  recall  by  the  people,  or  in  the  con- 
servative East  by  selection  from  a  list  of  names  chosen  by  heads 
of  accredited  educational,  charitable  and  commercial  institutions. 
The  control  over  the  productive  departments  of  the  institu- 
tions will  probably  have  to  take  form  according  to  the  number 
of  institutions,  type,  location  and  the  general  principle  of  the 
paid  or  the  voluntary  citizen  boards.  The  criterion  of  success 
of  management  depends  not  so  much  on  the  centralization  of 
control,  either  in  regard  to  the  buying  of  supplies  or  the  securing 
of  help,  but  in  the  similarity  of  the  systems  of  accounting  which 
makes  comparison  possible,  and  the  checking  of  efficiency  in  ad- 
ministration. Legislation,  therefore,  should  deal  primarily  with 
these  methods  of  report  and  accounting.^  The  efficiency  of  the 
controlling  power  will  rest  upon  the  personality  of  the  individuals 
in  control,  their  cleverness  as  business  managers  and  their  single- 
ness of  purpose — the  proof  of  which  will  be  found  in  the 
results.  The  board  of  control  should  therefore  be  given  full 
power  in  everything  pertaining  to  the  industries,  with  only  such 
limitations  as  would  prevent  the  control  over  the  convict  being 
abused  to  the  detriment  of  his  reformation.  This  limitation 
should  consist  of  an  unrestricted  method  of  repeal  from  the 
board  of  control  to  the  proper  court,  with  all  the  safeguards 
which  that  implies.  The  board  of  control  should  be  like  the 
board  of  trustees  of  a  university  and  have  referred  to  it  both 
the  educational  and  the  purely  business  sides  of  the  administra- 
tion.2  To  carry  out  its  business  obligations,  it  should  be  supplied 
with  credit  from  the  state,  either  in  the  form  of  a  capital  fund 
or  credit  upon  which  to  operate.  The  regulation  of  the  curricu- 
lum, partaking  in  this  instance  of  little  academic  work  and  a  large 
percentage  of  productive  labor  education,  should  be  entirely 
in  the  hands  of  the  board  of  control  and  the  rewards  and  de- 
merits worked  out  by  it.  The  wage  system  under  which  the 
inmates  are  to  be  employed  would  therefore  be  based  upon  the 

'New  York  Commission  on  Standardization,  "The  Standardization  of 
Supply  Specification   for  the  City  of  New  York." 

'Butler,   Nicholas   Murray,  "Address,"   Columbia  Alumni  News,   Nov., 


lOO  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

educational  and  developmental  value  in  their  relation  to  the 
production  of  efficiency  and  the  retention  of  the  interests  of  the 
convict  in  the  welfare  of  his  family  and  the  restitution  to  be 
made  for  his  crime.  The  placing  of  full  power  in  the  hands  of 
the  controlling  authorities  would  make  possible  the  development 
of  the  wage  of  the  convict  in  proportion  to  the  industrial 
development  of  the  institution. 

The  awakening  of  public  sentiment  to  the  appreciation  of 
the  educational  duty  of  the  penal  institutions  and  the  encourage- 
ment and  praise  given  for  improved  administration  will  do  much 
to  ensure  good  results. 


In  a  word  the  answer  of  what  to  do  is  to  be  found  in : 
The  establishment  of  a  bureau  of  clearance  zvith  full  powers 
over  purchases  of  state,  county  and  municipal  departments. 

The  fixing  of  definite  responsibility  for  institutional  manage- 
ment with  adequate  publicity. 


APPENDIX  I 

REPORT  ON  THE  HOUSE  OF  CORRECTION,  JESSUP, 

MARYLAND. 


REPORT  ON  THE  HOUSE  OF  CORRECTION 

Jessup,  Maryland, 

Made  by 

The  National  Committee  on  Prison  Labor, 

November  ist,  191 1. 

To  THE  Board  of  Managers, 
House  of  Correction, 
Jessup^  Md. 

Dear  Sirs: 

In  compliance  with  the  request  of  your  honorable  body  that 
the  National  Committee  on  Prison  Labor  present  to  your  Board 
its  findings  after  visiting  and  inspecting  your  institution,  together 
with  any  criticisms  or  suggestions  which  might  lead  to  the  im- 
provement of  the  institution,  we  beg  to  submit  the  following 
report.  The  report  is  based  upon  the  investigation  made  last 
summer  by  the  General  Secretary,  previous  to  your  request  for 
this  report,  and  a  subsequent  visit  to  the  institution  made  by  the 
General  Secretary  and  R.  Montgomery  Schell,  a  member  of  the 
Executive  Committee.  It  is  regretted  that  a  more  detailed 
report  could  not  be  made  on  account  of  the  lack  of  time  avail- 
able to  the  Committee  for  work  in  your  state  and  it  is  hoped 
that  the  lines  suggested  for  further  investigations  may  be  fol- 
lowed to  their  conclusion.  Every  facility  and  courtesy  was  pre- 
sented to  the  investigators  by  the  officers  of  the  institution.  As 
criticism  and  suggestions  were  definitely  asked  for  they  have 
been  incorporated  in  the  report  which  it  is  hoped  contains  suffi- 
cient statement  to  make  clear  the  requirements  suggested  and  to 
commend  the  reforms  already  instituted. 

report. 

The  House  of  Correction  is  located  a  short  distance  from 
Baltimore  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.  It  is  under 
state  supervision.  The  building  consists  of  two  long  cell-houses 
joined  by  an  administrative  hallway.      The  warden's   residence 


I04  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

adjoins  the  front  of  the  administration  building,  while  the  kitch- 
ens, power-house,  etc.,  adjoin  the  rear.  Two  small  wings  of  the 
cell-house  are  used  for  the  women's  quarters,  the  hospital  and 
some  of  the  shops.  The  small  adjacent  buildings  consist  of  a 
warehouse  for  the  contractors,  a  green-house,  a  dilapidated  pig- 
gery, a  small  barn  and  a  modern  slaughter-house  for  the  cattle. 
The  buildings  have  no  walls  about  them  and  are  set  on  a  tract  of 
land  comprising  about  three  hundred  acres;  about  i6o  of  which 
are  under  cultivation,  40  taken  up  by  buildings  and  lawns,  while 
100  acres  are  left  undeveloped.  The  appearance  of  the  insti- 
tution externally  is  extremely  attractive — a  broad  avenue  lined 
with  beautiful  trees  makes  a  fit  approach,  while  flower-beds 
adorn  the  lawns  and  vines  climb  upon  the  brick  walls  of  the 
institution — a  magnificent  bed  is  laid  out  in  red  flowers  in  the 
sign  of  a  cross ;  vmfortunately  the  convicts  only  see  this  side 
of  the  institution  at  their  entrance  or  discharge  from  it. 

MANAGEMENT  OF  THE  INSTITUTION. 

The  Board  of  Managers  consists  of  nine  citizens  together 
with  the  Attorney  General,  State  Comptroller  and  State  Treas- 
urer. The  citizen  members  of  the  Board  are  appointed  by  the 
Governor  and  hold  office  during  the  administration.  The  Su- 
perintendent is  an  appointee  of  the  Board  and  all  assistants  are 
appointed  directly  by  him.  The  Superintendent,  Mr.  Lankford, 
receives  $250.00  per  month,  residence,  supplies  and  house  ser- 
vants when  available  from  the  prison  population.  He  is  assisted 
by  a  clerk,  Mr.  Jones,  at  $100.00  per  month;  three  deputies  at 
$80  per  month ;  two  deputies  at  $60  per  month ;  17  guards  at  $55 
per  month;  a  matron  at  $30  per  month;  and  a  physician,  Dr. 
Byerly,  at  $70  per  month.  The  personnel  of  the  stafif  is  above 
the  average  found  in  institutions  of  this  grade.  Mr.  Lankford 
is  a  man  of  force  and  ability  to  organize  the  work  of  the  type  of 
men  that  are  his  assistants  and  to  handle  the  political  situation  as 
a  political  appointee.  The  institution  is  run  on  distinctly  partisan 
lines — the  Superintendent  admits  frankly  that  his  tenure  of  office 
depends  upon  the  continuance  of  a  political  party  in  office.  His 
absence  from  the  institution  for  several  days  at  a  time  during  the 
political   campaign  has  a  practical  justification.      The  appoint- 


APPENDIX      I.  105 

ments  of  subordinates  are  along  political  lines  and  pressure  is 
said  to  come  from  the  Board  for  the  appointment  of  incompetent 
persons  because  of  a  desire  to  take  care  of  them.  The  main 
responsibility  for  the  management  of  the  institution  falls  on  Mr. 
Tones,  the  clerk.  This  gentleman  is  of  the  old  school  and  well- 
connected  in  Maryland  but,  having  met  with  reverses,  he  now 
runs  the  institution  for  the  paltry  sum  of  $1200  a  year.  His 
demeanor  adds  a  tone  to  the  institution,  his  care  in  accounting  jus- 
tifies the  praise  bestowed  upon  him  by  the  state  auditors  in  their 
recent  report,  while  his  attitude  of  broad-minded  sympathy  im- 
presses itself  upon  the  w-hole  institution.  Dr.  Byerly  gives  a 
part  of  his  time  only  to  the  institution.  A  number  of  the  guards 
are  bright,  active  young  men. 

HOUSING   AND   SANITATION. 

The  cell-house  consists  of  the  usual  cell-block  surrounded 
by  the  walls  of  the  building.  One  block  is  considerably  newer 
than  the  other  but  both  are  light  and  well-constructed,  with  sani- 
tary conveniences  in  each  cell.  The  institution  is  not  overcrowded 
and  there  is  plenty  of  room  for  the  full  population.  The  cor- 
ridors facing  the  cell-block  are  occupied  by  tables  on  which 
the  convicts  eat  their  meals.  The  cell-block  showed  the  need 
of  soap,  water  and  paint ;  the  plumbing  was  rusty  and  in  many 
cases  leaking;  the  beds  were  dirty — the  bed-clothes  soiled  and 
the  blankets  coarse  and  filthy.  A  prison  official  warned  the  in- 
vestigators not  to  touch  the  iron  railings  on  the  stairs  for  fear 
of  getting  "the  itch" ;  while  the  convicts  reported  the  need  of 
using  fire  to  get  rid  of  the  bugs.  The  food  served  the  convicts 
in  the  corridors  filled  the  cell-house  with  the  odor  of  food  which 
is  offensive  in  most  prisons  even  where  there  is  a  modern  dining- 
room  and  the  finest  kitchens.  The  food  itself  is  not  served  to 
the  best  advantage — the  bread  is  inferior  to  the  grade  usually 
served  in  prisons  of  this  class,  while  practically  no  attempt  is 
made  to  keep  the  food  hot,  even  for  the  hospital  patients.  A 
study  of  the  dietary  was  impossible  but  it  was  the  impression 
of  the  investigators  that  the  food  was  not  of  such  quality,  variety 
or  served  under  such  conditions  as  will  best  conduce  to  keeping 
the  convicts  healthy.      The  kitchens  are  well  located  and  sup- 


I06  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

plied  with  proper  utensils,  ice-boxes,  etc.,  of  modern  type,  but 
no  attempt  seemed  to  be  made  to  have  these  places  tidy.  In  the 
kitchen  proper  the  investigators  noticed  a  big  cauldron  piled  high 
with  swill,  while  the  meat  and  bread  cut  and  distributed  on  tin 
pans  were  arranged  on  the  floor  and  several  convicts  with  mops 
and  dirty  water  were  attempting  to  mop  the  remaining  part  of  the 
floor.  These  pans  when  piled  one  upon  another  to  be  taken 
in  to  the  convicts  naturally  were  cleaned  by  the  scraping  of  the 
bottom  of  one  pan  on  the  food  in  the  pan  below.  The  supplies 
are  said  to  be  checked  with  care,  but  no  special  method  could  be 
discerned  for  protecting  the  institution  against  short  quantity 
and  poor  quality,  so  common  in  institutions  of  this  class.  An 
extended  study  of  this  field  would  prove  profitable,  though  criti- 
cism of  the  management  should  rest  until  the  matter  has  been 
thoroughly  gone  into.  The  coal  supply  is  not  tested  and  the 
introduction  of  the  thermal  unit  as  a  means  of  paying  for  the 
actual  heat  produced  by  the  coal  could  not  help  being  beneficial. 

THE   PRISONERS. 

Convicts  are  sent  to  this  institution  from  all  over  the  state 
for  terms  up  to  ten  years,  though  the  average  is  probably  nearer 
twelve  months.  Both  sexes  are  taken  and  there  is  no  age  limit 
— at  present  the  oldest  inmate  is  eighty-two  and  the  youngest 
twelve  years.  The  commitments  seem  to  be  made  on  an  arbi- 
trary basis ;  in  the  counties  the  justices  commit  all  their  short- 
term  people  to  the  institution.  From  the  counties  come  the  young 
boys.  The  form  of  commitment  is  in  many  cases  faulty  and  it 
seems  an  admitted  fact  that  habeas  corpus  proceedings  would 
release  a  large  number  of  such  convicts.  Where  the  convict 
can  pay  the  cost  of  proceedings  release  is  possible.  It  is  stated 
that  $500.00  would  produce  jail  delivery  if  spent  for  legal  aid 
for  the  convicts.  How  many  convicts  are  guilty  of  the  charge 
for  which  they  are  incarcerated  it  is  impossible  to  tell ;  some  are 
committed  for  acts  like  "carrying  a  pistol"  which  is  provided  as 
a  right  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  They  all  claim 
to  be  innocent,  but  a  very  large  proportion,  probably  two  thirds, 
is  committed  for  vagrancy,  train-riding  and  trespass,  mostly  in 
connection  with  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.      The  legal 


APPENDIX    I.  107 

form  of  commitment  of  the  railroad  cases  states  that  the  man  is 
guilty  of  about  a  dozen  acts  in  connection  with  the  trains — too 
many  it  would  seem  to  have  been  accomplished  by  any  one  man 
— but  the  form  is  printed  and  ready  for  any  emergency.  The 
blanks  state  that  the  convict  has  waived  trial  by  jury  and  other 
legal  technicalities.  Several  justices  have  charge  of  these  rail- 
road cases.  It  is  claimed  by  the  authorities  of  the  institution 
that  these  justices  are  of  the  better  class  of  justices  in  the  state, 
while  the  convicts  charge  railroading,  refusal  to  provide  counsel 
for  the  defendant  and  even  intoxication  on  the  part  of  the  jus- 
tices. The  Governor  is  said  to  pardon  convicts  of  this  class 
upon  protest  by  any  reputable  citizen  and  it  is  understood  that 
he  does  not  investigate  the  merits  of  the  cases.  This  method  of 
pardon,  if  it  prevails,  which  is  intended  to  provide  justice,  does 
not  ensure  the  attainment  of  that  end.  In  the  management  and 
discipline  of  the  convicts  merit  rather  than  influence  should  be 
the  test  of  release.  The  type  of  convict  sent  from  Baltimore  is 
a  matter  needing  investigation.  The  magistrates  of  Baltimore 
commit  to  the  Jail,  the  House  of  Correction  and  the  Peniten- 
tiary. It  is  charged  by  the  authorities  at  the  House  of  Correc- 
tion that  the  justices  commit  to  the  Jail  and  the  Penitentiary  all 
convicts  that  are  efficient  workers  and  of  value  to  the  contractors. 
During  the  year  the  Governor  formally  notifies  the  justices  that 
they  must  send  as  many  convicts  as  possible  to  the  House  of 
Correction  because  of  the  need  of  keeping  good  faith  with  the 
contractors  at  the  institution.  Whether  these  charges  are  jus- 
tifiable ought  to  be  thoroughly  gone  into;  eminent  penologists 
have  criticised  the  existence  of  contracts  and  the  commitment 
of  convicts  to  the  City  Jail  at  Baltimore.  The  question  of  a 
restriction  of  the  Jail  to  prisoners  awaiting  trial  and  sentence 
is  much  to  the  point.  The  fact  that  the  authorities  of  the  House 
of  Correction  and  the  Maryland  Prisoners'  Aid  Society  have  been 
at  loggerheads  for  some  time  and  the  sincerity  of  the  agents  of 
the  Prisoners'  Aid  Society  questioned  has  made  a  situation  which 
should  be  taken  in  hand. 

The  committing  of  young  boys  to  the  institution  by  the  county 
magistrates  should  be  stopped.  A  case  in  point  is  that  of  the 
commitment  of  Wish  Sheppard,  13  years  of  age;  P.  S.  Sheppard, 


I08  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

12  years  of  age;  Huston  Hurluck,  12  years  of  age,  and  Lloyd 
Rickets,  13  years  of  age,  from  Federalsburg,  for  burglary. 
Young  Hurluck  is  white,  the  others  colored. 

The  convicts  are  dressed  in  stripes  and  are  marched  to  and 
fro  in  lockstep.  The  advantage  of  the  prison  stripes  and  the 
prison  manner  of  walking  has  been  questioned  by  the  best  prison 
wardens  of  the  country.  The  national  government  has  done 
away  with  the  same,  as  have  New  York  and  most  of  the  pro- 
gressive states.  It  has  been  found  that  the  usual  poor  carriage 
of  the  convict  is  not  improved  by  the  lockstep  method,  that  it 
takes  longer  and  is  more  conducive  to  escape.  It  is  held  by 
prison  wardens  that  a  neat  uniform  aids  discipline,  is  reforma- 
tive and  is  much  easier  to  keep  clean  and  wholesome. 

Labor. 

The  labor  of  the  convicts  is  taken  care  of  by  four  contracts, 
together  with  several  small  local  accounts  with  people  in  the 
neighborhood  who  hire  out  the  convicts  for  work  about  their 
farms  and  houses.  The  farm  supplies  a  few  of  the  convicts  with 
work — the  products  being  used  in  the  institution,  or  sold  on 
the  general  market.  The  value  of  the  farm  products  sold  on 
the  market  in  1909  was  $889.00,  of  which  $665.00  came  from 
wheat.  The  products  canned  in  1910  and  used  in  the  institu- 
tion amounted  to  380  cans  of  apples,  230  cans  of  beans  and  896 
cans  of  tomatoes.  On  the  farm  the  trusties  work,  supervised 
by  a  guard  with  a  gun  which  he  uses  to  point  out  the  peas  and 
tomatoes  which  they  have  forgotten  to  pick.  The  greenhouse 
makes  a  little  work  and  so  does  the  piggery— the  latter  brings  in 
a  profit  of  $500.00  a  year  from  oustide  sales ;  the  flowers  beautify 
the  lawns  and  are  enjoyed  by  the  visitors. 

The  income  of  the  institution  from  its  contracts  and  other 
sources  has  almost  doubled  during  the  incumbency  of  the  present 
administration,  being  $64,000  in  1907  and  $121,000  in  1910.  The 
increase  is  the  result  of  greater  efficiency  secured  by  the  preven- 
tion of  abuses  on  the  part  of  the  contractors.  The  Superin- 
tendent caught  the  contractors  making  false  reports  during  his 
first  year  of  administration  and  told  them  if  they  continued  he 
would  have  to  take  legal  action  to  terminate  the  contracts.      He 


APPENDIX    I.  109 

was  successful  also  in  resisting  the  attacks  of  these  contractors 
and  the  attempts  at  bribery  of  certain  of  them.  The  Superin- 
tendent claims  that  the  former  administration  allowed  the  con- 
tractors to  run  the  institution ;  he  claims  that  the  conditions  have 
improved  since  the  East  India  Manufacturing  Company  was 
forced  out  and  the  cocoa  mat  and  matting  business  established. 
The  Superintendent  claims  that  the  low  price  of  the  convict's 
labor  in  the  contracts  is  the  responsibility  of  the  Board  of  Man- 
agers and  that  he  was  an  advocate  of  much  higher  rates.  The 
contracts,  summarized,  are  appended  to  this  statement. 

The    Shops. 

Conditions  found  in  the  shops  are  as  follows : 
The  shop  of  the  Cumberland  Shirt  Company  is  in  the  base- 
ment under  the  cell-block.  It  is  a  large,  airy,  light  room,  equipped 
with  good  sewing  machines  and  electric  light.  The  foreman  and 
guards  seem  to  be  good  sort  of  men.  190  men  were  at  work 
and  turn  out  about  200  dozen  a  day  at  thirty-five  cents  per  man 
per  day  to  the  state.  The  foreman  of  the  shirt  company  stated 
that  some  of  the  men  earned  $9.00  a  month  overtime,  but  this 
was  the  exception — the  average  being  somewhere  between  $2.00 
and  $3.00  a  month.  The  task  was  arranged  by  agreement  between 
the  Company  and  the  Warden,  a  printed  card  being  on  the  wall. 
Many  of  the  convicts  working  in  the  shop  were  colored — prob- 
ably a  dozen  were  below  the  age  of  sixteen  and  three  or  four 
under  fourteen.  The  shop  was  supplied  with  a  few  spittoons 
and  many  cans  for  expectoration — the  doctor  admitted  that  there 
were  many  cases  of  tuberculosis  and  many  of  the  convicts  looked 
it.  The  expectoration  was  not  confined  to  the  cans,  and  one 
sick  convict  was  seen  to  expectorate  over  the  packing  cases  and 
the  shirts.  The  man  looked  so  sick  and  hollow-chested  that 
inquiry  was  necessary,  and  it  was  found  that  he  had  been  sick 
for  five  days  but  had  not  been  able  to  see  the  doctor  because  of 
the  doctor's  need  of  giving  his  extra  time  to  the  fifteen  typhoid 
cases  in  the  hospital.  With  the  hospital  full  it  was  probably 
too  much  to  ask  the  doctor  to  examine  cases  which  he  had  no 
means  of  taking  care  of.  The  shop  was  so  dirty  that  if  it  had 
been  a  sweat  shop  on  the  East  Side  of  New  York  City  the  laws 


no  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

of  New  York  State  would  have  permitted  its  being  closed  until 
it  had  been  properly  cleaned  and  fumigated. 

Two  hundred  men  work  in  the  mat  shop,  most  of  them  on  hand 
looms — a  few  on  high  power  machines.  The  room  is  filled  with 
machines,  poorly  lighted,  badly  ventilated.  Only  in  the  fas; 
machines  is  there  any  attempt  to  draw  off  the  dust.  The  aii 
is  thick  with  flying  fibre  which  is  impossible  to  keep  out  of  the 
lungs  because  of  the  need  of  deep  breathing  required  by  the  use 
of  the  arms  in  working  the  looms.  The  output  of  the  shop  is 
about  700  mats  for  200  men  per  day.  The  best  grade  was  auto 
mats  and  the  foreman  seemed  surprised  that  there  could  be  such 
a  demand  for  auto  mats  as  to  consume  the  output.  Some  of  the 
men  make  overtime.  On  the  mat  machines  they  make  $2.00  a 
month,  while  on  the  other  work  probably  $1.00  a  month. 

Thirty-five  men  work  in  the  broom  shop  and  have  a  task  of 
six  dozen  per  day.  They  are  said  to  make  from  $3.00  to  $9.00 
a  month  overtime,  while  the  Baltimore  Association  for  the  Blind 
is  making  a  desperate  attempt  to  get  work  for  its  dependent  blind. 
Robert  C.  Norman  of  the  Atlantic  Broom  Co.  in  a  letter  dated 
October  9th,  191 1,  to  the  Superintendent,  states: 

"Should  any  of  your  discharged  prisoners  care  to  earn 
an  honest  living  they  can  do  so  making  brooms,  and  prison 
broom-making  is  about  the  only  prison  industry  at  which 
the  prisoner  acquires  a  knowledge  and  skill  of  any  value 
in  after  life." 

A  number  of  the  convicts  in  this  work  were  boys  of  nineteen 
who  had  started  out  to  see  the  world  and  got  caught  on  a  freight. 

The  overall  shop  is  up  three  flights  of  stairs  in  a  detached 
loft  of  the  cell  house.  The  rooms  are  bright  and  airy  and  accom- 
modate the  thirty-two  convicts  easily.  More  than  half  are  colored 
women  in  the  last  stages  of  degradation.  The  others  are  white 
women,  with  the  exception  of  a  boy  of  twelve  who  because  of 
his  criminal  nature  was  sentenced  to  the  institution  and  because  of 
his  tender  years  and  gentle  ways  is  classed  with  the  females.  One 
girl  of  eighteen  of  delicate,  refined  nature  makes  also  a  contrast  tc 
the  hardened  characters.  Her  crime  was  the  result  of  bad  sur- 
roundings— a  step-mother  and  a  long  series  of  years  of  being 


APPENDIX    1.  Ill 

placed  out  from  an  orphan  asylum  to  work  for  some  farmers  who 
abused  her.  It  is  doubtful  whether  her  father  will  take  her  home 
and  she  is  absolutely  without  hope.  The  women  are  at  work  on 
men's  overalls  for  Flint  of  Baltimore  ;  their  task  is  26  pair  and  they 
work  eight  hours.  Overtime  is  paid  them  and  one  woman  earned 
$3.05  one  month  according  to  the  books.  The  thirty-two  women 
earned  $10.59  ^  month.  Young  Houston,  the  boy,  earned  two 
cents  a  month  in  this  line  of  industry — that  is  sewing  strips  on  the 
back  of  overalls.  The  warden's  daughter  stated  that  he  earned 
more  than  two  cents  carrying  notes  from  the  women  to  the  male 
convicts  but  that  he  has  now  promised  to  be  good  if  she  will  give 
him  the  cigarettes  which  he  could  buy  with  the  amount  of  money 
he  had  been  earning;  this  agreement  between  the  warden's  school- 
teacher daughter  and  the  convict  of  twelve  is  working  well  and 
he  has  at  last  consented  to  study  at  night  with  his  new  friend. 
The  foreman  of  the  shop  is  chaperoned  by  the  old  guard  and 
young  Houston  but  the  matron  never  intrudes  into  the  upper  loft 
to  chaperone  the  women.  The  foreman  is  a  good  fellow  and  doing 
his  best  under  difficulties.  He  is  doing  what  he  can  to  help  young 
Houston  and  the  eighteen-year-old  girl  and  be  gentle  with  two 
negro  women  who  are  entirely  out  of  their  minds. 

MEDICAL  CARE. 

The  hospital  was  crowded  with  typhoid  fever  cases  and  a 
trained  nurse  was  doing  her  best  to  fight  the  conditions,  assisted  by 
several  convict  boys  whom  she  said  were  helping  her  very  nicely. 
She  and  all  concerned  were  being  pumped  full  of  antitoxine. 
The  cases  have  been  going  on  for  two  weeks  and  examination 
has  been  requested  by  the  Board  regarding  milk  and  water.  The 
guards  were  showing  some  signs  of  fear  for  themselves — still 
the  doctor  had  not  gotten  a  satisfactory  analysis  of  the  water. 
When  questioned  in  regard  to  tuberculosis  he  said  he  could  do 
nothing  to  isolate  the  cases  but  requested  that  the  National  Com- 
mittee on  Prison  Labor  recommend  that  it  be  done  in  justice  to  the 
prisoners.  He  said  he  felt  no  responsibility  for  the  condition  of 
the  workshops,  cells  or  kitchens — that  he  was  there  only  part  time. 
He  admitted  that  Mr.  Whitin  had  caught  him  examining  the  cases 


112  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

of  mumps  on  the  eating  tables  of  the  convicts,  but  he  was  not 
aware  that  at  that  time  two  cases  of  mumps  with  their  heads  band- 
aged up  were  lying  down  on  piles  of  shirts  in  the  shop  of  the 
Cumberland  Shirt  Company,  adding  to  the  dangers  of  tuberculosis 
the  risk  of  mumps  being  sent  throughout  the  community.  It  seems 
that  in  former  years  a  resident  physician  was  in  the  institution. 
The  doctor  makes  no  examination  of  the  convicts  when  they  come 
in.  One  of  the  convicts  came  to  us  with  a  big  bandage  on  his 
head  and  explained  that  it  wasn't  a  fight  but  the  result  of  having 
fallen  against  his  cell  in  an  epileptic  fit.  As  the  man  was  crippled 
by  his  disease  and  feeble-minded  as  well  the  question  of  how  he 
could  be  admitted  to  the  institution  naturally  presents  itself. 

THE  PUNISHMENTS. 

Before  punishment  is  inflicted  the  Superintendent  holds  a  court 
and  before  him  appear  the  deputies  as  complainants.  Other  con- 
victs are  used  as  witnesses  for  or  against  the  prisoner.  If  the 
prisoner  is  found  guilty  by  the  Superintendent  he  is  whipped. 
The  whipping  is  done  with  a  cat-o-nine-tails.  In  the  case  of  men 
they  are  cufifed  up  and  beaten  naked ;  women  are  said  to  be  beaten 
about  the  ankles.  The  solitaries  are  said  to  be  out  of  use — the 
investigation  of  them  bore  out  this  statement.  The  loss  of  good 
time  is  said  to  make  the  severer  punishments  unnecessary  in  most 
cases. 

SUMMARY  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS. 

1.  The  equipment  of  the  institution  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes 
but  there  needs  to  be  built  a  dining-room  and  suitable  hospital  for 
tuberculosis  cases. 

2.  The  staff  of  the  institution  is  good  but  should  be  taken  out  of 
politics  and  all  salaries,  with  the  exception  of  that  of  the  Superin- 
tendent, should  be  raised. 

3.  A  resident  house  physician  should  be  installed  and  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  sanitary  conditions  of  the  institution.  He 
should  examine  all  prisoners  upon  admission  to  the  institution  and 
ascertain  whether  their  eyes  and  physique  make  it  possible  for 
them  to  work  upon  the  industry  assigned.     He  should  supervise 


APPENDIX    I.  113 

the  dietary  and  provide  for  the  removal  into  custodial  asylums  of 
feeble-minded  and  epileptics. 

4.  The  Board  of  Managers  should  provide  for  the  transfer  to 
a  juvenile  reformatory  of  all  children  under  sixteen  years  of 
age  committed  to  their  institution,  so  as  to  provide  for  their 
education  and  a  compliance  with  the  standards  universally  ac- 
cepted regarding  the  restriction  of  factory  work  for  children. 
IMinors,  both  male  and  female,  between  sixteen  and  eighteen, 
should  be  segregated,  both  in  workshops  and  living  quarters. 

5.  Women  convicts  should  have  the  protection  of  a  matron  at 
all  times  and  the  foreman  in  the  overall  shop  should  be  relieved 
of  the  responsibility  of  caring  for  children  and  insane  women. 

6.  The  industries  now  conducted  in  the  institution  are  none  of 
them  of  such  a  character  as  would  teach  a  trade  of  value  upon 
leaving  the  institution  as  is  shown  by  the  testimony  of  certain 
of  the  contractors.  The  work  in  brooms  is  directly  detrimental 
to  the  state-subsidized  industry  of  broom-making  for  the  blind. 
The  contracts  terminating  September  19 12  should  be  discon- 
tinued and  the  others  at  the  time  of  their  maturing.  In  the 
meantime  the  workshops  should  be  thoroughly  cleaned  and  goods 
rot  allowed  to  be  shipped  until  the  Board  of  Health  have  thor- 
oughly investigated  and  given  a  clean  bill  of  health  to  the  insti- 
tution— failure  to  comply  with  these  regulations  should  result  in 
action  from  the  boards  of  health  in  those  states  to  which  the 
goods  are  shipped.  The  mat  factory  should  be  provided  with 
proper  ventilation. 

7.  The  farm  should  be  developed  to  its  greatest  capacity  and 
worked  by  convicts  placed  on  their  honor,  the  guard  replacing 
his  gun  by  a  hoe  and  adding  his  labor  to  the  labor  of  the  gang. 
The  forest  area  should  be  cleared  of  its  underbrush  and  planted 
with  small  trees  to  be  used  in  reforestation  along  the  lines  sug- 
gested by  Governor  Dix  of  New  York  State.  Arrangements 
should  be  made  with  the  state  and  county  road  commissioners 
for  the  employment  of  as  many  convicts  outside  of  the  building 
as  possible  in  preparing  roads  and  in  breaking  stone,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  suggestions  of  the  Governor  in  his  message.  In 
this  work  the  services  of  the  Superintendent's  son  might  well 
be  secured  by  the  institution. 


114  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

8.  The  renting  of  convicts  out  to  farmers  should  be  discontin- 
ued and  the  institution  should  develop  a  number  of  small  industries 
such  as  the  raising  of  wheat,  the  canning  of  farm  products, 
raising  of  pork,  etc.  The  possibility  of  establishing  a  brick 
industry  to  supply  the  large  demand  for  brick  in  the  road  build- 
ing of  the  state  should  be  looked  into  by  the  Board  and  if  pos- 
sible the  methods  used  in  the  Minneapolis  Workhouse  followed. 
An  arrangement  should  be  secured  with  the  City  of  Baltimore, 
through  the  aid  of  Mr.  Furst,  President  of  the  Penitentiary 
Board,  for  the  right  to  manufacture  brushes  and  ash  cans  for 
the  street-cleaning  department.  A  printing-press  should  be  in- 
stalled upon  which  should  be  employed  the  young  men  between 
sixteen  and  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  the  general  state  printing 
conducted  there — such  printing  to  be  supervised  by  a  foreman 
who  is  a  member  of  the  printers'  union  and  upon  agreement 
with  the  union  to  count  the  work  towards  apprenticeship  for 
the  union. 

9.  The  lockstep  should  be  done  away  with  as  soon  as  possible 
and  the  clothing  known  as  prison  stripes  should  also  be  done 
away  with  as  soon  as  possible. 

10.  The  Board  of  Managers  should  make  thorough  investiga- 
tion of  the  supplies  sent  to  the  institution  and  find  out  whether 
they  are  of  proper  grade  and  quantity. 

11.  Thorough  investigation  of  the  commitments  to  the  institu- 
tion from  the  courts  of  Baltimore  and  the  counties  should  be  made 
by  some  organization  holding  a  neutral  position  between  the 
Maryland  Prisoners'  Aid  Association  and  the  Board  of  Managers 
of  the  House  of  Correction — special  reference  being  made  to 
the  illegal  commitment  of  guilty  and  the  legal  commitment  of 
innocent  persons.  The  effect  of  politics  and  race  prejudice  upon 
the  courts,  the  attitude  of  the  courts  toward  certain  institutions 
and  the  justification  of  the  Prisoners'  Aid  Society  in  seeking  to 
release  prisoners  on  habeas  corpus  and  through  pardons. 

12.  The  prisoners  should  be  allowed  acquaintance  with  God's 
sun  and  air.  The  flower  cross  in  front  of  the  institution  should  be 
made  visible  to  all  the  inmates  at  least  once  a  day  and  as  a  re- 
ward of  good  behaviour  convicts  should  be  allowed  on  Saturday 
afternoons  to  see  and  participate  in  a  baseball  game.     Moving 


APPENDIX    I.  115 

pictures  should  be  introduced  which  would  aid  the  men  to  take 
an  interest  in  leading  better  lives  and  becoming  industrially  effi- 
cient. The  common  branches  of  English  should  be  taught  the 
convicts  in  night  school. 

13.  Better  facilities  for  the  placing  of  the  convict's  earnings  at 
the  disposal  of  his  family  should  be  worked  out. 

14.  The  religious  work  of  the  institution  is  said  to  be  well  con- 
ducted by  the  Maryland  Prisoners'  Aid  Society  and  representa- 
tives of  the  church.  This  work  should  be  developed  and  proper 
facilities  given  for  it. 

Due  credit  should  be  given  the  present  management  for  their 
efficiency  in  increasing  the  revenue  of  the  institution  50%  and 
installing  such  plants  as  the  ice-plant  and  piggery.  The  intro- 
duction of  the  above  recommendations  should  increase  the  value 
of  the  convict's  labor  per  day  from  35  cents  on  the  average  to 
$1.00  a  day.  To  produce  this  efficiency  the  system  of  task  and 
bonus  should  be  continued  on  the  farm,  road  and  other  work, 
making  such  allowance  for  the  convict's  wages  as  will  produce 
the  greatest  efficiency  in  the  work,  following  the  schemes  worked 
out  in  a  number  of  other  institutions.  The  increase  in  the  physi- 
cal health  of  the  convicts  will  add  materially  to  this  end,  to- 
gether with  the  recreation  features.  The  doing  away  with  the 
feeling  of  antagonism  to  the  administration  on  the  part  of  the 
prisoner  will  lessen  materially  the  work  of  the  guards.  The  ad- 
justment of  the  commitments  will  aid  in  bringing  a  more  efficient 
type  of  convicts  to  the  institution.  The  increased  efficiency  will 
justify  an  increase  of  salaries  to  the  guards,  the  securing  of  a 
resident  physician,  the  paying  the  matron  a  respectable  wage 
and  placing  the  fiscal  head  of  the  institution,  Mr.  Jones,  on  a  salary 
commensurate  with  his  value  to  the  institution  and  the  function 
he  is  at  present  performing. 

SUMMARY  OF  CONTRACTS. 

Atlantic  Broom  Company. 

Agreement,  February  12th,  1908,  to  take  effect  April  ist, 
1908,  for  a  term  of  five  years,  for  fifty  males,  or  in  proportion  to 
the  East  India  Company  and  the  Cumberland   Shirt  Company. 


Il6  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

Twenty-five  females'  from  April  ist,  1908,  and  if  the  contractor 
desires  for  four  and  a  half  years  longer,  at  a  price  not  to  exceed 
twenty  cents  a  day.  Males  at  thirty-five  cents  a  day  of  eight 
hours;  females  at  fifteen  cents  a  day  for  eight  hours.  Payments 
are  to  be  made  on  the  fifteenth  of  each  month — the  first  thirty 
days  of  a  convict's  time  to  be  free  to  the  contractor,  unless  pre- 
viously skilled.  Tasks  set  by  agreement  between  contractor  and 
warden,  to  be  arranged  July  ist,  1908.  Overwork  to  be  paid  for 
to  the  convicts  at  the  same  rate.  The  prison  not  responsible  for 
failure  to  do  tasks.  Proper  rooms  are  to  be  furnished  with 
sufficient  power,  light  and  heat ;  limit  of  power  ten  horse  power. 
For  rooms  and  power  contractor  pays  $50.00  a  month.  Increased 
power  to  be  arranged  for  if  needed.  Males  and  females  to  be 
worked  in  separate  rooms.  The  contractor  has  a  right  to  erect 
a  warehouse  near  the  track  and  to  remove  the  same  after  the 
temination  of  the  contract.  Failure  to  employ  the  prisoners 
assigned  terminates  the  contract.  Instructors  are  allowed  in  the 
shop.  The  machinery  installed  is  security  for  good  faith  and 
may  be  seized  by  the  warden  on  failure  to  keep  the  contract 
and  sold  after  advertisement.  The  proceeds  to  reimburse  the 
prison  against  loss  and  any  surplus  being  turned  over  to  the 
contractor.  The  rules  of  the  Superintendent  shall  prevail.  The 
contractor  is  restricted  to  the  manufacture  of  brooms  and  like 
articles,  while  the  prison  authorities  promise  not  to  contract  with 
other  persons  for  the  use  of  the  prisoners  in  the  manufacture  of 
similar  articles.  In  case  of  fire  the  rooms  shall  be  repaired  by 
the  prison  authorities  and  shall  be  occupied  by  the  contractor 
within  thirty  days  after  the  opening  of  the  room  to  them  or  the 
contract  shall  be  void.  Should  the  National  Government  pass 
laws  against  the  sale  of  convict  goods,  the  General  Assembly  of 
Maryland  or  a  majority  of  the  following  states,  viz :  Virginia, 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  the  contract  is  cancelled  in  ninety 
days.      Fifty  cents  a  load  is  allowed  for  hauling. 

The  Cumberland  Shirt  Company. 

See  contract  with  Atlantic  Broom  Company  for  general  feat- 
ures, from  which  the  following  variations  are  noticed: 

I.  Sublet  to  Flint  Overall  Company, 


APPENDIX    I.  117 

Contract  entered  into  ]\Tay  ist,  1910,  for  five  years  for  200 
males,  being  made  up  of  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  convicts  remaining 
after  the  other  contracts  were  satisfied;  to  be  more  than  one 
hundred  and  less  than  200,  at  35  cents  a  day  of  eight  hours. 
$100.00  a  month  for  rent  and  $15.00  for  extra  horse  power.  A 
bond  of  $10,000  given  by  contractor  for  good  faith. 

Darragh  and  Smeel  and  Joseph  Wild  and  Co. 

See  Atlantic  Broom  Co.  summary  for  general  features  except 
the  following: 

To  take  eflfect  May  ist,  19 10,  for  seven  years,  for  100  con- 
victs with  200  as  the  limit,  at  forty  cents  a  day  for  two  years 
from  May  ist,  1910,  and  for  the  five  years  after  that  at  47^ 
cents;  the  first  thirty  days  to  be  free,  except  for  skilled  men. 
The  task  to  be  24  square  feet  a  day,  with  over-work  regulations. 
$200  per  month  for  rent  and  power.  The  contract  to  be  can- 
celled if  the  National  Government,  the  General  Assembly  of 
Maryland,  Ohio,  Illinois  and  New  York  pass  laws  limiting  the 
sale  of  the  goods. 


APPENDIX  II 

PRISON  LABOR  IN  PARTY  PLATFORMS. 
PRISON  LABOR  IN  GOVERNORS  MESSAGES. 
PRISON  LABOR  IN  LEGISLATION. 


PRISON  LABOR  IN  PARTY  PLATFORMS 

Compiled  September,  191 1. 
ALABAMA 

SOCIALIST  PARTY 

"The  reformation  of  our  penal  system  and  abolishment  of  the  lease 
system  and  employment  of  the  convicts  by  the  state  under  state  super- 
vision in  producing  their  food,  clothing  and  other  necessities  and  all  not 
so  occupied  to  be  employed  in  building,  improving  and  maintaining  a 
system  of  public  roads  throughout  the  state." 

ARKANSAS 

DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 

"We  believe  that  all  competition  between  convict  labor  and  free  labor 
should,  as  far  as  possible,  be  avoided.  We  believe  that  the  welfare  of 
the  convicts  can  be  better  maintained  when  they  are  employed  in  work 
directly  for  the  benefit  of  the  State,  and,  to  do  all  that  we  can  to  this  end, 
we  earnestly  favor  the  working  of  the  convicts  on  the  state's  farm  until 
such  time  as  they  can  be  worked  advantageously  upon  the  roads  of  the 
State,  always  keeping  a  sufficient  number  on  the  farm  to  raise  supplies 
to  clothe  and  feed  themselves  and  those  engaged  on  the  public  roads. 
No  convicts  shall  be  let  out  on  contract  except  where  extraordinary  con- 
ditions shall  arise  which  shall  make  it  absolutely  necessary  for  their 
maintenance." 

REPUBLICAN    PARTY 
"We  favor  absolute  abolishment  of  the  convict  lease  system." 

SOCIALIST  PARTY 

"We  point  out  that  there  have  been  hundreds  of  men  and  women  in 
our  prisons  who  have  been  convicted  of  crime,  who  are  really  diseased 
and  who  with  the  proper  treatment  might  be  restored  to  useful  citizen- 
ship, and  point  out  that  the  duty  of  the  State  in  inflicting  punishment  on 
those  who  have  been  charged  with  public  wrongs  is  not  only  to  furnish 


I20  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

an  example  to  others  and  restrain  the  irresponsible  but  to  lift  up  the 
fallen  and  to  restore  to  a  life  of  usefulness  the  victims  of  a  system  which 
invites  their  existence." 


FLORIDA 

SOCIALIST  PARTY 

"We  demand  the  establishment  of  a  state  penitentiary  and  abolishment 
of  the  contract  system  of  convict  labor.  Prisoners  to  be  employed  on 
public  improvements  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  compete  with  free  labor." 


GEORGIA 

REPUBLICAN    PARTY 

"We  favor  the  abolishment  of  the  iniquitous  convict  lease  system  and 
the  placing  of  convicts  on  the  public  highways  of  the  state." 


IDAHO 

SOCIALIST  PARTY 

"We  favor  the  payment  to  convicts  of  regular  wages  for  the  work  at 
which  they  are  employed  and  the  disbursement  of  all  excess  above  the 
cost  of  their  keep  to  their  wives  and  children." 


ILLINOIS 

REPUBLICAN   PARTY 

"We  favor  the  substitution  of  non-competitive  for  competitive  work 
in  penal  and  reformatory  institutions." 


APPENDIX    II.  121 

DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 

"The  products  of  convict  labor  should  not  be  brought  into  competition 
with  free  labor  to  lower  standards  of  living  and  demoralize  business. 
The  convicts  should  be  employed  in  the  production  of  material  for  per- 
manent roads  and  bridge  construction  for  building  roads  and  bridges 
which  would  be  left  unbuilt  if  not  supplied  from  this  unfair  source." 

SOCIALIST  PARTY 

"The  improvement  of  the  industrial  condition  of  workers  by  the  for- 
bidding of  interstate  transportation  of  the  products  of  convict  labor." 

INDIANA 

DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 

"We  declare  for  the  enactment  and  enforcement  of  such  laws  as  will 
prevent  any  competition  between  the  products  of  labor  in  our  penal 
institutions  and  the  product  of  free  labor." 

REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

"We  abolished  prison  contract  labor.  We  estabhshed  trade  schools. 
We  enacted  model  statutes  providing  for  non-partisan  control  of  the 
state's  charitable,  benevolent  and  penal  institutions." 

KANSAS 

SOCIALIST  PARTY 

"The  entire  earnings  of  the  inmates  of  our  state  penitentiary  shall  be 
turned  over  to  their  families,  the  expense  of  maintaining  this  institution 
being  bom  by  the  taxpayers  who  vote  to  maintain  a  system  which  deprives 
millions  of  employment  and  thereby  forces  them  into  crime." 


MONTANA 

REPUBLICAN    PARTY 

"We  favor    ....   a  law  prohibiting  the  sale  of  prison  made  goods 
unless  plainly  stamped  with  the  words  'prison  made'." 


J22  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

SOCIALIST  PARTY 

"We  declare  emphatically  against  the  system  of  working  convicts 
in  unfair  competition  with  free  labor.  We  propose  healthful,  outdoor 
employment  of  convicts  at  the  prevailing  union  rate  of  wages,  such 
wages,  less  cost  of  prosecution  and  maintenance  of  the  convict,  to  be 
credited  to  and  paid  to  him  at  the  end  of  his  term,  or  in  the  case  of 
convicts  with  families,  the  net  earnings  to  be  paid  to  the  dependent 
family." 

MISSOURI 

REPUBLICAN    PARTY 

"Similar  reforms  have  been  inaugurated  in  the  penal  and  reformatory 
institutions  of  the  state  and  particularly  in  the  state  penitentiary.  The 
:onvicts  have  been  better  fed  and  better  clothed  and  the  conditions  under 
which  they  live  and  work  have  been  made  more  sanitary  and  more  hu- 
mane methods  of  treatment  and  of  discipline  inaugurated. 

We  commend  the  conduct  of  the  penal  and  reformatory  institutions 
of  the  state  under  Republican  administration.  We  recognize  the  urgent 
necessity  of  the  establishment  of  a  state  reformatory  where  first  offenders, 
between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  twenty-five  years,  may  be  given  a 
proper  measure  of  industrial  and  general  education  and  opportunity  to 
thereby  become  useful  and  productive  citizens." 

DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 

We  are  opposed  to  the  present  system  of  convict  labor  at  the  Missouri 
State  Penitentiary.  We  believe  that  it  is  unfair  and  unjust  to  honest 
labor  that  they  should  be  compelled  to  compete  with  convict  labor,  and 
we  recommend  that  the  State  Legislature  devise  means  for  using  the 
state  convicts  in  preparing  material  for  the  construction  of  permanent 
public  roads  in  this  State,  reclaiming  swamp  and  overflowed  lands  and 
to  prevent  the  inundation  of  river  bottom  lands,  thereby  preventing  com- 
petition between  honest  and  skilled  labor  and  convict  labor. 

We  commend  the  last  Democratic  State  Senate  in  standing  by  the 
Democratic  platform  in  1908  and  passing  a  bill  abolishing  convict  labor 
at  the  state  penitentiary,  and  we  condemn  the  Republican  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives in  violating  the  pledge  of  their  platform  for  refusing  to 
concur  on  that  bill  passed  by  the  Democratic  State  Senate." 


APPENDIX    II.  123 

NEBRASKA 

REPUBLICAN    PARTY 

"We  favor  the  creation  of  a  non-partisan  board  of  control  of  the 
state,  the  penal,  reformatory  and  charitable  institutions  of  the  state." 

SOCIALIST  PARTY 

"Convict  labor  to  be  paid  for  at  the  same  rate  of  wages  paid  union 
labor  for  the  same  kind  of  work  at  nearest  point  to  prison,  said  wage  to 
be  paid  to  the  prisoner  or  his  family." 

NEVADA 

DEMOCRATIC   PARTY 

"We  stand  for  reform  in  the  Nevada  State  Prison  so  that  the  inmates 
thereof  may  earn  their  own  support." 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

REPUBLICAN    PARTY 

"We  hold  that  the  best  employment  for  the  state  convicts  is  on  the 
public  highways." 

OKLAHOMA 

SOCIALIST  PARTY 

"The  Socialist  Party  demands  the  free  administration  of  justice  and 
the  maintenance  by  the  state  of  families  dependent  on  state  and  county 
convicts." 


RHODE  ISLAND 

REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

"We  point  with  approval  to  extensive  additions  and  improvements 
made  in  our  charitable,  educational  and  penal  institutions,  satisfying  the 
demands  for  improvement  in  these  branches  of  the  public  service  mani- 
fested by  the  citizens  of  the  state." 


124  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

TENNESSEE 

REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

"We  believe  that  it  is  unjust  that  one  industry  should  be  specially 
singled  out  to  bear  the  burden  of  competition  with  convict  labor  and 
that  such  competition  should  be  so  distributed  that  no  industry  would 
be  materially  affected  thereby.  We  therefore  condemn  the  extensive 
operation  of  coal  mines  by  convict  labor  where  the  coal  thus  mined  is 
thrown  upon  the  market  already  supplied,  in  direct  competition  with  coal 
mined  by  free  labor,  and  by  which  such  mines  are  driven  into  idleness 
or  the  employes  are  forced  to  accept  the  minimum  wages.  We  also  con- 
demn the  unbusinesshke  manner  in  which  the  state  mine  is  conducted 
whereby  it  is  run  at  a  loss  to  the  state,  while  at  the  same  time  no  effort 
is  made  to  protect  other  operators  from  the  baneful  effects  of  this  unjust 
and  unnatural  competition.  We  would  favor  the  employment  of  a  large 
number  of  the  state's  convicts  in  the  building  of  a  state  highway  from 
Memphis  on  the  West  to  the  Virginia  line  at  Bristol  on  the  East." 

SOCIALIST  PARTY 

"Abolition  of  all  forms  of  involuntary  servitude  except  punishment 
for  crime." 

TEXAS 

DEMOCRATIC  PARTY 

"We  favor  divorcing  the  management  of  the  penitentiary  and  our 
eleemosynary  institutions  from  political  control,  to  the  end  that  they  will 
not  suffer  the  disturbance  of  changes  in  administrations,  and  we  recom- 
mend independent  Boards  of  Control  with  tenure  of  office  so  arranged  as 
to  prevent  a  complete  change  of  management  at  any  time.  We  insist  upon 
a  faithful  application  of  the  wise  and  merciful  policy  of  moral  reform 
and  mental  and  manual  training  in  all  penal  institutions." 

REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

"We  demand  the  passing  of  such  laws  as  will  further  the  establishing, 
laying  out,  building  and  keeping  in  good  repair  a  system  of  inter-county 
public  roads,  and  to  this  end  we  further  demand  the  employment  of 


APPENDIX    II.  125 

penitentiary   convicts,   thus   providing   for   them   profitable   employment 
without  bringing  their  labor  into  competition  with  honorable  free  labor." 

SOCIALIST  PARTY 

"Humane  and  scientific  treatment  of  the  inmates  of  the  state  peni- 
tentiaries, all  the  value  of  their  labor  above  an  economic  cost  of  main- 
tenance to  go  to  their  families  or  dependents." 

WISCONSIN 

REPUBLICAN   PARTY 

"In  the  year  1907  the  Legislature  of  this  State  empowered  the  Board 
of  Control  to  establish  and  maintain  a  plant  for  the  manufacture  of 
binder-twine  in  the  State  Prison  at  Waupun  and  appropriated  $125,000 
for  this  purpose.  Believing  that  the  investment  of  public  money  already 
made  should  be  safe-guarded  we  favor  the  immediate  completion  of  this 
plant  and  its  operation  by  state  convicts  in  the  manufacture  of  binder- 
twine." 

WYOMING 

DEMOCRATIC   PARTY 

"We  favor  the  enactment  of  a  law  providing  that  all  prison-made 
goods  shipped  in  from  other  states  shall  be  plainly  marked  or  branded 
'prison-made'." 

REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

"We  recommend  the  abolition  of  the  convict  leasing  system  in  our 
state  prison." 

SOCIALIST   PARTY 

"We  favor  the  employment  of  state  convicts  on  roads  and  public 
works  where  free  labor  cannot  be  employed." 


126  Penal  Servitude. 

PRISON  LABOR  IN  THE  GOVERNORS'  MESSAGES. 

COMPILED  APRIL   12th,   1911 

EMMET  O'NEAL 

GOVERNOR  OF  ALABAMA 

"The  Legislature  now  has  power  to  devote  the  net  proceds  of  the 
hire  of  convicts,  as  well  as  other  available  funds  in  the  State  treasury, 
towards  the  improvement  and  construction  of  our  public  roads,  but  what 
proportion  of  the  cost  should  be  borne  by  the  State  and  counties  and 
precincts,  is  one  which  will  require  your  careful  consideration  and  earnest 
thought,  if  State  aid  for  our  public  roads  is  undertaken." 

Governor's  Message — p.  48. 

GEORGE  W.  DONAGHEY 

GOVERNOR  OF  ARKANSAS 

"The  Management  of  the  Arkansas  Penitentiary  has  been  a  perplexing 
problem  to  the  people  of  the  state  for  many  years.  The  penitentiary  is 
designedly  a  place  for  the  punishment  of  criminals,  and  should  not  be 
made  a  football  for  politicians  to  toss  here  and  there,  nor  a  means  of 
personal  profit  to  individuals,  corporations  or  contractors.  Every  phase 
of  monetary  profit  coming  from  convict  labor  to  anyone  except  the  state 
should  be  eliminated.  This  can  never  be  done  under  any  form  of  leasing 
convicts  to  contractors.  Under  the  best  system  of  management  for  penal 
institutions,  the  men  directly  in  charge  of  convicts  become  negligent  of 
the  proper  protection  of  the  convicts  against  bad  treatment.  But  when  a 
convict  is  hired  out  and  with  the  thought  uppermost  in  the  mind  of  the 
guard  or  warden  that  the  convict  is  in  the  penitentiary  to  be  punished, 
it  is  not  difficult  for  a  contractor,  having  nothing  at  stake  but  the  money 
he  is  to  make  in  the  transaction,  to  influence  the  protectors  of  the  State's 
interests  to  become  more  neglectful  of  the  welfare  of  the  helpless  crim- 
inals in  their  charge.  As  an  instance  of  adverse  conditions  under  the 
lease  system,  I  will  make  the  prediction  that  an  investigation  of  the 
facts  would  show  that  the  deaths  of  a  large  majority  of  the  convicts  for 
the  past  two  years  have  occurred  in  cases  where  they  were,  or  had  been, 


APPENDIX    II.  127 

hired  out  to  contractors.  I  will  also  venture  the  statement  that  escapes 
are  made  from  the  same  camps  in  about  the  same  ratio  as  these  deaths 
occur.  Any  form  of  the  lease  system  also  promotes  disorganization  of  the 
State's  interests  and  discontent  in  the  minds  of  the  convicts.  When  the 
State  w^orks  her  own  convicts  directly  on  her  own  work  and  on  her  own 
premises,  there  is  no  incentive  to  overwork,  underfeed  or  badly  clothe 
the  prisoners.  I  was  told  by  the  warden  on  the  State's  farm  that  during 
the  past  year,  on  a  certain  occasion,  he  sent  eighteen  convicts  two  miles 
away  from  headquarters  without  a  guard,  to  clear  some  land.  That  they 
went  to  and  from  the  work  daily  without  giving  the  least  trouble.  Then, 
as  a  matter  of  actual  experience,  we  find  the  expense  of  maintenance 
to  be  materially  less  when  working  the  convicts  directly  for  the  State. 
On  our  convict  farm  if  there  has  been  a  free  guard  employed  in  the  past 
two  years,  it  was  a  useless  expense.  During  my  several  visits  there,  I 
have  never  seen  one,  and  the  statement  of  the  warden  to  me  was  that 
there  were  no  free  guards  on  the  farm.  All  were  convicts,  and  those  I 
noticed  were  mostly  cripples  or  otherwise  disabled  so  they  could  not  have 
made  full  hands  at  other  kinds  of  labor.  But  when  convicts  are  hired 
out  to  contractors  it  not  only  takes  free  guards,  but  also  more  of  them 
to  a  given  number  of  men  than  it  would  require  on  the  farm. 

The  question,  however,  with  which  we  are  confronted  is :  'Can  we 
abolish  the  convict  lease  system  and  make  the  penitentiary  self-support- 
ing?' The  majority  of  the  present  board  contend  that  we  cannot.  *  *  ♦ 
But  I  believe  that  the  convict  lease  system  is  not  only  a  crime  that  we  are 
committing  against  downfallen  humanity,  but  also,  from  an  economic 
viewpoint,  it  is  an  error,  and  that  any  process  of  reasoning  to  the  contrary 
is  founded  on  a  false  basis." 

Our  convict  population  is  made  up  almost  wholly  of  prisoners  whose 
lives  and  work  have  been  devoted  to  agriculture.  The  experience  of  the 
board  since  I  became  a  member  of  it  is  as  follows :  When  we  took  charge 
of  the  penitentiary  two  years  ago,  and  before  we  could  make  a  move  to 
earn  anything  for  its  maintenance,  we  found  it  was  in  debt  in  the  sum 
of  about  $130,000.  Ninty-nine  thousand  dollars  was  appropriated  by  the 
Legislature  out  of  the  general  revenue  fund  for  the  payment  in  part  of 
that  debt.  The  balance  remaining  unpaid  w^as  left  to  the  board  to  work 
out.  The  first  year,  1909,  we  bought  supplies  on  credit,  paying  what  our 
creditors  chose  to  charge  us,  and  we  not  only  paid  the  debt  to  which  we 
fell  heir,  but  made  enough  money  over  and  above  all  expenses  to  pay 


128  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

$30,000  of  the  State's  farm  debt,  and  turned  back  into  the  general  revenue 
fund  $50,000.  For  the  past  year  we  will  do  equally  as  well  if  not  better. 
The  greater  part  of  this  money  was  earned  on  the  State's  farm.  Of 
course,  those  opposed  to  my  idea  will  contend  otherwise;  but  here  are 
the  facts:  We  have  on  the  State  farm  2,700  acres  of  open  land.  Our 
first  cotton  crop  and  the  seed  from  same  brought  us  $125,000.  The 
cotton  and  the  seed  produced  on  the  same  land  for  the  past  year  at  the 
time  of  writing  is  harvested  and  is  worth  on  the  current  market  $160,000. 
So  we  will  be  able  to  pay  $30,000  more  on  the  farm  debt  and  turn  back 
into  the  State's  general  fund  another  $50,000.  Now,  anyone  who  knows 
anything  about  farm  work  or  management  knows  that  2,700  acres  of  land 
can  be  cultivated  with  300  convicts,  or  less  than  10  acres  to  the  man.  It 
would  be  a  reflection  on  the  management  of  any  board,  superintendent  or 
warden  of  the  penitentiary  to  maintain  that  this  cannot  be  done.  Then 
this  land,  cultivated  by  a  force  of  less  than  one-third  of  the  925  convicts 
under  the  control  of  the  penitentiary  board,  has  earned  for  the  past  two 
years  more  than  half  of  all  the  revenue  that  the  penitentiary  has  received. 
Hence,  we  see  that  under  present  conditions,  which  are  exceedingly  bad, 
as  will  be  noted  later,  300  men  are  not  only  making  a  support  for  them- 
selves, and  paying  the  cash  dividend  before  noted,  but  they  are,  in  addi- 
tion, supporting  over  150  other  convicts  who  are  working  for  contractors. 
No  doubt  the  opposition  to  this  statement  will  produce  ready  statistics  to 
show  the  contrary,  but  statistics  are  worthless  in  the  face  of  facts.  Why 
shouldn't  convicts  make  more  than  a  support?  Most  of  the  farmers  of 
the  State  are  making  a  large  profit  on  their  labor  when  applied  to  their 
farms. 

But  I  think  the  best  plan  of  handling  the  convicts  is  as  I  suggested 
in  my  former  message.  I  will,  therefore,  renew  that  recommendation, 
which  is,  that  you  pass  a  law  by  which  a  part  of  the  convicts  may  be 
worked  on  the  farm  and  put  the  others  on  the  highways  of  the  State. 
This  can  be  done  under  proper  management  without  additional  cost,  and 
if  you  will  provide  for  it  the  State  will  get  the  advantage  of  all  the  roads 
that  can  be  built  by  a  force  of  300  or  400  convicts  for  absolutely  nothing 
over  the  present  conditions. 

Our  policy  should  not  be  one  practiced  by  uncivilized  people,  nor  one 
in  which  inhuman  treatment  by  irresponsible  parties  can  be  employed. 
If  we  are  going  into  the  slave  traffic,  with  our  victims  bound  in  chains  and 
guarded  by  guns,  just  for  the  money  there  is  in  it,  let  us  so  arrange  it 


APPENDIX    II.  129 

that  we  will  reap  the  reward.  As  it  stands,  the  State  commits  the  crime 
and  does  not  get  the  profit.  That  goes  into  the  pocket  of  those  who 
do  not  take  the  responsibility.  We  can  lease  the  convicts  to  responsible 
contractors  with  a  better  system  and  a  bond  for  their  protection,  and 
receive  for  that  lease  not  less  than  $125,000  per  annum.  Better  still,  we 
C3an  work  all  of  them  for  the  State  on  its  farm  and  rented  land,  until 
enough  land  may  be  cleared  on  the  farm  and  turn  $125,000  annually  into 
the  State  Treasury,  and  save  the  lives  of  at  least  two  out  of  four  of 
the  convicts." 

Governor's  Message,  pp.   1.3- 18. 


(SUPPLEMENTAL  MESSAGE.) 

In  accordance  with  his  policy  of  working  all  the  convicts  not  employed 
at  the  state  farm  on  the  public  highways  of  the  state,  Governor  Donaghey 
yesterday  sent  a  message  to  the  Legislature  recommending  that  the  pres- 
ent convict  lease  system  be  abolished  and  the  labor  of  all  convicts  not 
needed  on  the  farm  be  given  to  such  counties  of  the  state  as  will  pay  all 
the  expenses  of  maintenance  of  said  convicts  for  building  public  high- 
ways.    Following  is  the  governor's  message : 

By  a  special  call  of  the  chairman,  the  Penitentiary  Board  met  this 
morning  for  the  purpose  of  considering  a  proposition  from  W.  L.  Reaves 
for  the  leasing  of  200  convicts  to  said  Reaves  for  a  period  ending  October 
I,  191 1 ;  and  on  the  question  of  what  the  future  policy  of  the  Legislature 
and  the  state  will  be  concerning  the  leasing  out  of  convicts,  the  board 
passed  the  following  resolution : 

"Whereas,  The  Penitentiary  Board  has  for  two  years  been  in  an 
undecided  state  of  mind  as  to  what  policy  the  Legislature  would  ultimately 
adopt  in  the  disposal  or  working  of  the  state  convicts ;  and, 

"Whereas,  The  board  from  time  to  time  has  made  short  term  contracts 
for  the  employment  of  the  men  which  have  not  been  as  advantageous  or 
profitable  to  the  state  as  might  have  been  under  longer  term  contract  or 
other  methods  that  might  have  been  employed  in  working  convicts ;  and 

"Whereas,  Since  the  present  Legislature  has  been  in  session  the  board 
has  been  undecided  as  to  what  the  future  policy  of  the  Legislature  would 
be  toward  the  employment  of  the  convicts,  and  the  Penitentiary  Board  has 
refrained  from  making  any  contracts  longer  than  very  short  periods;  and. 


130  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

"Whereas,  The  contractor,  W.  L.  Reaves,  the  only  contractor  who 
has  been  working  the  convicts,  and  the  only  contractor  who  is  now  bid- 
ding for  them,  has  declined  to  work  the  convicts  any  longer  unless  he  be 
given  a  longer  time  contract ;  therefore,  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  the  Penitentiary  Board  now  in  session,  ask  the  Legis- 
lature to  immediately  express  itself  by  resolution  or  otherwise  as  to  the 
future  policy  of  working  or  employing  the  convicts  before  this  board  shall 
take  further  action  in  the  matter." 

In  order  that  the  Penitentiary  Board  may  govern  itself  in  obedience 
to  your  will,  I  recommend  that  you  address  yourself  to  this  subject  at 
once. 

I  recommend  that  you  immediately  pass  a  concurrent  resolution  ex- 
pressing it  as  the  sense  of  your  honorable  body  that  the  practice  of  leas- 
ing out  convicts  to  contractors  be  discontinued  at  once ;  and  that  you  fol- 
low this  resolution  by  the  enactment  of  a  bill  repealing  the  existing  laws 
by  which  convicts  are  hired  out  to  contractors,  and  that  you  further  pro- 
vide that  the  labor  of  all  convicts  not  needed  on  the  state  farm  be  given 
to  such  counties  of  the  state  as  will  pay  all  the  expenses  of  maintenance 
of  said  convicts  for  the  building  of  public  highways. 

By  the  adoption  of  such  a  plan,  the  state  could  not  lose  anything  from 
the  employment  of  those  convicts  sent  to  the  farm,  while  the  demand  from 
counties  willing  to  pay  all  expenses  of  all  convicts  for  all  the  time  they  can 
be  secured  will  be  greater  than  the  state  will  be  able  to  supply  from  any 
surplus  number  which  would  remain  on  her  hands. 

"Gazette",  Little  Rock  (Ark.),  March  29. 


HIRAM  W.  JOHNSON 

GOVERNOR  OF  CALIFORNIA 

"There  has  been  introduced  to-day  in  the  Senate  and  Assembly  a  bill 
designated  'An  Act  to  authorize  and  regulate  the  employment  of  prisoners 
in  the  State  prisons  of  this  State,  and  to  provide  for  the  disposition  of 
the  products  of  their  skill  and  labor',  the  design  of  which  is  to  enable  the 
prisoners  in  the  State  prisons  to  manufacture  such  articles,  materials,  and 
supplies  as  may  be  needed  for  any  public  use  by  the  State,  or  any  county 
or  municipality,  or  that  may  be  used  or  required  in  any  State  institution. 


APPENDIX    II.  131 

This  message  is  sent  that  you  may  have  before  you  the  purpose  of  the 
bill  and  the  reasons  actuating  Warden  Hoyle,  of  San  Quentin,  in  its  prep- 
aration, and  that  have  induced  me  to  recommend  it. 

In  the  care  and  maintenance  of  convicts,  the  first  problem  that  presents 
itself  to  the  State  is  to  furnish  appropriate  and  rational  employment,  not 
only  that  prisoners  may  be  kept  from  idleness,  but  that  they  may  be 
taught  during  the  period  of  their  confinement  useful  trades,  and  may  after 
the  expiration  of  their  terms  be  able  to  follow  legitimate  employment  and 
to  rehabilitate  themselves.  The  most  efficacious  manner  in  which  this 
humanitarian  doctrine  can  be  consummated  is  in  regular  hours  of  em- 
ployment, in  regular  trades  for  those  who  are  confined  within  the  prisons, 
and  by  such  regulations  to  provide  the  physical  and  mental  activity  neces 
sary,  and  thus  to  afford  the  possibility,  the  hope,  and  the  opportunity  foi 
ultimate  regeneration. 

The  other  reason  why  the  proposed  measure  will  be  advantageous  is 
upon  the  financial  side.  If  permission  to  manufacture  and  produce  the 
articles  mentioned  be  accorded,  the  State  prisons  in  great  measure  will 
be  self-supporting,  and  it  is  the  hope  of  Warden  Hoyle,  based  upon  ex- 
perience in  other  places, — and  his  hope  seems  to  me  justified, — that  within 
a  few  years  the  State  prisons  of  the  State  of  Cahfornia,  under  the  plan 
suggested,  will  be  wholly  self-supporting,  and  will  not  require  further 
aid  of  the  government. 

The  objection  to  the  manufacture  of  articles  in  the  State  prisons  comes 
generally,  and  justly,  I  think,  from  the  free  labor  of  the  State.  The  pur- 
pose of  the  bill  that  has  been  introduced  is  to  permit  only  those  articles 
to  be  manufactured  which  are  used  by  the  State,  the  county,  or  the  munici- 
pality, and  does  not  permit  their  sale  privately. 

The  restrictions  within  the  bill  are  such  that  prison  labor  shall  not  be 
brought  in  competition  with  free  labor.  The  particular  measure  that  has 
been  introduced  has  been  submitted  to  the  San  Francisco  Labor  Council, 
and  has  received  the  sanction  of  that  body. 

It  is  presented  to  you,  therefore,  with  the  full  knowledge  and  approval 
of  labor  within  the  State  of  California. 

The  cost  of  maintaining  the  prisons  of  the  State  of  California  is,  in 
round  figures,  something  over  half  a  million  dollars  per  annum.  If  this 
cost  can  be  met  in  any  measure  by  the  proposed  plan,  apparently  it  should 


132  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

commend  itself  to  us  all.  Beyond  this,  if  it  meets  the  requirements  first 
iUggested,  of  furnishing  the  necessary  activity  physically  and  mentally 
to  prisoners,  and  with  the  learning  of  useful  trades  or  occupations  will 
enable  prisoners  better  to  care  for  themselves  after  their  release,  an  amply 
sufficient  reason  is  presented  for  its  passage.  In  order  to  carry  out  the 
proposed  scheme,  no  appropriation  is  asked  from  the  Legislature. 

Two  Acts  are  presented  with  the  bill,  which  establish  from  the  present 
earnings  of  the  prison  a  fund  which  may  be  used  in  preparing  for  the 
manufacture  and  production  of  the  articles  named. 

I  might  add  that  the  scheme  proposed,  and  indeed  the  bill  as  drawn, 
is  fashioned  upon  the  law  that  is  now  in  force  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
and  which  has  worked  so  beneficently  there." 

Governor's  Supplemental  Message. 

JOHN  F.  SHAFROTH 

GOVERNOR  OF  COLORADO 

"The  Seventeenth  General  Assembly  passed  a  law  giving  to  convicts, 
who  worked  upon  public  highways,  ten  days'  commutation  of  sentence 
for  every  thirty  days  of  work.  That  law,  composed  of  only  a  few  lines, 
has  produced  wonders  for  the  convicts  and  for  the  State  of  Colorado. 
Under  its  exercise  by  Warden  Tynan  it  has  revolutionized  the  spirit  of 
the  prison.  The  warden  sends  out  for  highway  construction  the  convicts 
termed  'trusties.'  He  makes  each  one  swear  that  he  will  not  attempt  to 
escape.  He  establishes  camps  for  the  construction  of  road  work,  with 
gangs  of  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  at  each  camp.  During  the  day  time 
he  has  no  armed  guards.  He  simply  has  two  unarmed  overseers  to 
direct  the  character  and  kind  of  work.  At  night  there  is  but  one  armed 
guard  and  he  is  a  trusty.  In  many  of  the  States  the  complaint  has  been 
that  the  State  cannot  do  road  work  by  convicts,  because  the  cost  of  the 
guards  amounts  to  more  than  the  cost  of  constructing  the  road  by  con- 
tract. The  cost  of  guards  in  this  State,  under  Mr.  Tynan  and  the  recent 
law,  has  been  practically  nothing.  The  work  performed  by  the  prisoner, 
stimulated  by  the  promise  that  his  sentence  will  be  commuted  ten  days 
out  of  every  thirty  days  of  work,  has  been  of  such  excellent  character 
as  to  surpass  that  of  the  ordinary  laborer  employed  to  work  upon  roads. 
The  convict  knows  that  if  his  work  is  not  good  he  is  liable  to  be  taken 
and  placed  within  the  walls  of  the  prison.      It  is  the  fear  of  that  event, 


APPENDIX    II.  133 

as  well  as  the  hope  of  the  reward  promised  him  by  the  law,  that  causes 
such  excellent  work.  The  escapes  have  been  very  few,  a  net  loss  of 
only  one  in  the  past  six  months.  These  camps  consist  of  tents  and  are 
moved  from  point  to  point,  and  are  not  contained  within  any  enclosure 
whatever.  Every  man  in  the  prison  is  anxious  to  get  out  on  road  work 
and  farm  work,  and  about  fifty-one  per  cent,  of  the  prisoners  have  been 
utilized  in  that  way  during  the  past  two  years.  The  result  has  been  most 
beneficial  to  the  convicts.  Instead  of  them  leaving  the  prison  at  the 
end  of  their  term,  pale  and  emaciated  from  having  been  confined  in  cells 
behind  prison  bars,  they  are  strong,  vigorous  and  well  equipped  to  earn 
a  living  by  hard  labor.  This  policy  has  a  most  wholesome  effect  morally 
upon  the  prisoners,  as  it  teaches  them  that  by  good  conduct  and  work 
they  can  receive  rewards,  even  while  serving  sentences  in  the  penitentiary. 
It  has  been  of  great  value  to  the  State.  It  is  estimated  by  the  warden 
that  the  cost  of  the  roads  built  by  the  convicts  if  constructed  by  free  labor, 
would  have  amounted  to  $212,160.  From  the  farms  and  gardens  cul- 
tivated by  the  prisoners,  over  and  above  what  was  consumed  by  the  in- 
mates of  the  penitentiary,  there  was  sold  $38,125  worth  of  products. 
This  amount  includes  some  sales  from  the  lime  quarries.  The  warden 
shows  in  his  report  that  the  total  saved  by  the  work  of  the  convicts  of  the 
State,  in  the  way  of  road  building,  farm  work,  lime  making,  repairs  and 
construction  of  buildings,  amounted  during  this  biennial  term  to  the  sum 
of  $317,221." 

Governor's  Message,  p.  6. 


ALBERT  W.  GILCHRIST 

GOVERNOR  OF  FLORIDA 

The  State  convicts  on  March  2,  1909,  were  leased  to  the  Florida  Pine 
Company  of  Jacksonville  for  a  period  of  four  years,  commencing  Janu- 
ary I,  1910,  at  $281.60  each  per  year.  Under  this  lease  there  was  paid  to 
the  State  for  the  year  1910,  $366,134.81.  Deducting  incidental  expenses, 
salaries  of  Supervisors  of  Convicts,  $10,000  appropriation  for  the  State 
Reform  School,  etc.,  aggregating  for  1910  about  $20,000.00,  there  is  left 
some  $346,000.00,  all  of  which  is  apportioned  to  the  various  counties  in 
proportion  to  their  assessed  valuations.  The  terms  and  conditions  of  the 
lease  are  such  that  every  suitable  means  of  protecting  the  interest  and 


134  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

welfare  of  the  convicts  is  provided  for.  As  will  be  remembered,  the 
contract  provides  for  the  withdrawal  of  all  female  prisoners,  invalid  male 
prisoners  and  such  other  prisoners  who  from  any  cause  may  be  deemed 
unable  to  perform  reasonable  manual  labor.  The  contract  provides  that 
after  the  withdrawal  of  the  said  women  and  invalid  men  prisoners,  the 
lessees  agreed  to  pay  an  extra  fifteen  per  cent  on  the  said  per 
capita  of  $281.60  for  the  prisoners  remaining  in  their  custody. 
This  would  make  the  price  paid  for  those  remaining  in  their  custody 
$323.84  each.  With  the  approval  of  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  State 
Institutions  the  female  prisoners  and  the  invalid  male  prisoners  were 
withdrawn,  a  special  arrangement  having  been  agreed  upon  by  the  Florida 
Pine  Company  for  their  care  at  the  expense  of  said  Company.  Under 
the  terms  of  this  agreement,  the  additional  fifteen  per  cent  is  retained  by 
said  company. 

During  the  year  1909  there  were  handled  1,705  prisoners;  during  1910 
there  were  handled  1,781  prisoners.  During  1909  there  were  fourteen 
deaths.  During  iQio  there  were  twenty  deaths.  The  death  rate  per  thou- 
sand for  1909  was  8.21;  for  1910,  it  was  11.23.  Considering  that  so 
many  are  diseased  before  entering  the  camps,  this  is  a  remarkably  low 
death  rate.  In  the  registration  area  of  the  United  States,  including  the 
New  England  States,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Delaware  and  the  District 
of  Columbia,  as  shown  by  the  United  States  census  for  1900,  there  were 
17.8  deaths  per  thousand.  I  have  no  access  to  the  death  rate  as  shown  by 
the  United  States  census  for  1910. 

Some  think  it  would  be  well  to  use  the  convicts  in  road  building  as  is 
done  in  Georgia.  This  system  has  some  objectionable  features.  I  have 
examined  somewhat  into  the  Georgia  system.  In  some  of  the  counties, 
especially  those  in  which  there  are  cities,  the  longer  term  State  convicts 
are  assigned  for  work  in  such  cities.  The  shorter  term  convicts  are  used 
in  the  construction  of  roads  in  the  country.  In  some  counties,  in  which 
there  are  no  such  cities,  the  long  and  short  term  men  work  on  the  roads. 
I  examined  a  convict  road  camp  in  one  of  the  counties  of  Georgia.  In 
these  camps,  the  men  sleep  in  a  movable  car  placed  on  four  wheels,  with 
bars,  constructed  very  much  in  the  manner  in  which  a  car  is  constructed 
in  which  animals  are  conveyed  around  in  the  various  menageries  forming 
a  part  of  the  circuses  showing  throughout  our  State,  with  this  exception : 
in  the  circus  cars  there  are  usually  only  one  or  two  animals.  In  the 
convict  cars,  there  are  sometimes    ten    or    twelve    convicts.      They    are 


APPENDIX    II.  135 

shackled  and  connected  with  a  chain  at  night.  On  Sundays  they  rest 
under  a  canopy.  Those  who  are  not  trusties  are  shackled  and  are  attached 
to  what  is  known  as  a  log  chain.  Those  whom  I  found  located  in  a  city 
were  in  comfortable  quarters  with  good  beds,  and  apparently  as  well  cared 
for  as  those  in  the  convict  camps  of  Florida. 

I  hardly  think  that  it  is  fair  for  a  long  term  convict  to  be  required 
to  spend  eight,  ten  or  more  years  in  such  cramped-up  quarters.  Such 
movable  carriages  on  roads,  in  road  building  are  absolutely  necessary,  else 
if  the  convicts  had  permanent  quarters  they  would  necessarily  consume 
all  the  time  in  going  to  and  from  work. 

From  an  economical  standpoint  such  a  road  system  would  not  be  ad- 
visable. Able-bodied  convicts  under  the  present  lease  will  bring  $323.84 
per  year,  guards,  good  clothing  and  medical  attention  being  furnished  by 
the  lessee,  together  with  transportation  from  the  place  of  conviction.  The 
same  amount  of  money  expended  in  free  labor  would  probably  produce 
better  results  than  if  the  convicts  were  placed  on  the  roads.  In  my  judg- 
ment, the  convicts  would  fare  better  in  the  present  permanent  convict 
camps  than  they  would,  if  used  in  such  temporary  quarters.  It  might  be 
well  for  a  committee  of  the  Legislature  to  visit  a  Florida  Convict  Camp 
and  also  to  visit  a  convict  camp  in  the  neighboring  State  of  Georgia.  If 
the  object  in  placing  the  State  convicts  on  the  roads  is  the  amelioration 
of  the  condition  of  the  convicts,  actual  observation  of  the  conditions  ex- 
isting in  Georgia  and  in  Florida  might  result  in  a  change  of  opinion. 
If  the  intention  of  those  desiring  such  a  change  is  to  have  more  roads 
built,  better  results  would  probably  be  obtained  if  the  law  was  such  that 
the  money  proportioned  to  the  counties,  should  be  spent  exclusively  in  the 
construction  of  good  roads.    *    *    * 

Chapter  5941,  Acts  of  1909,  appropriated  $50,000.00  for  the  purchase 
of  a  tract  of  land  to  be  used  as  a  State  Prison  Farm,  and  directed  the 
Board  of  Commissioners  of  State  Institutions  to  select  and  purchase  same. 
For  this  purchase  several  tracts  of  land  were  offered  and  investigated. 
After  careful  examination  the  Board  purchased  8,154.50  acres  at  $5.00 
per  acre,  situated  in  Bradford  County  near  Ellerbe  and  Raiford.  The 
Board  took  an  option  on  7,445.50  acres  more  at  the  same  price,  subject 
to  action  of  the  Legislature  in  appropriating  money  for  the  purchase  of 
the  same.  This  land  is  conveniently  located  to  railway  facilities.  The 
Atlantic  Coast  Line  Railroad  runs  along  one  side  of  it.     There  is  a  sta- 


136  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

tion,  Ellerbe,  on  the  land.  The  Seaboard  Air  Line  Railroad  is  three  to 
four  miles  from  the  tract.  The  land  is  slightly  rolling,  well  drained, 
underlaid  with  clay.  I  consider  it  as  fine  a  patch  of  land  as  can  be  se- 
cured. The  Board  recommends  the  purchase  of  the  entire  acreage.  This 
land  is  suitable  for  the  production  of  staple  products,  such  as  Sea  Island 
cotton,  corn,  sugar  cane,  etc.,  vegetables  and  strawberries,  potatoes,  etc. 
In  fact,  I  regard  it  as  a  splendid  piece  of  property.  Eventually,  in  my 
opinion,  the  convicts  of  the  State  will  be  placed  upon  this  or  some  other 
lands.  In  case  it  should  ever  be  decided  to  remove  the  Reform  School, 
it  could  be  placed  upon  this  land,  as  the  boys  at  such  school  could  be  of 
much  assistance  in  the  production  of  strawberries  and  early  vegetables. 
Of  the  1,800  acres  of  land  owned  by  the  State  at  the  Hospital  for  the 
Insane,  there  is  scarcely  ten  per  cent,  suitable  for  cultivation.  As  Florida 
increases  in  population  it  may  be  decided  to  locate  another  hospital  in 
some  other  portion  of  the  State.  If  so,  it  would  be  well  to  locate  the 
same  on  some  of  these  lands.  The  lands  of  good  quality  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  this  hospital  are  not  of  such  quantity  as  to  give  sufficient  em- 
ployment to  those  patients  of  the  hospital  who  would  be  glad  to  do  some 
manual  labor  and  to  whom  such  work  would  be  a  God-send.  However,  if 
after  purchasing  the  same  it  should  be  decided  that  the  State  does  not 
need  all  this  land,  I  am  satisfied  that  one-half  of  it  can  be  easily  sold  for 
enough  money  to  pay  for  it  all.  In  the  event  authority  is  given  for  the 
purchase  of  the  remainder,  it  is  recommended  that  a  bill  be  passed  author- 
izing the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  State  Institutions  to  dispose  of  such 
portions  of  it  on  such  terms  and  for  such  price  as  the  Board  may  deem 
just  and  proper.  This  land  is  not  a  solid  tract,  as  there  are  several  set- 
tlers owning  land  within  its  limits.  The  Board  might  consider  it  advisable 
to  dispose  of  some  of  it  with  a  view  of  purchasing  lands  so  as  to  solidify 
its  holdings.     It  would  be  well  for  a  committee  to  examine  this  patch. 

Referring  to  Section  4140  of  the  General  Statutes,  in  which  provision 
is  made  for  allowing  gain  time  to  State  prisoners  for  good  conduct,  and 
for  faithful  service,  it  appears  that  other  States  use  a  graduating  scale, 
increasing  gradually,  so  that  after  two  or  three  years,  the  number  of  days 
of  gain  time  will  increase  upon  good  behavior,  the  same  to  be  forfeited 
by  an  attempt  to  escape.  Such  should  be  our  law.  The  said  section 
should  also  be  amended  to  provide  that  upon  good  behavior,  a  convict 
sentenced  for  life  shall  receive  his  freedom  at  the  expiration  of  twenty 
years'  service  in  prison.     For  exceptionally  good  conduct,  such  as  pre- 


APPENDIX    II.  137 

venting  escapes,  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  State  Institutions  sliould 

be  authorized  to  allow  a  time  credit  of  not  exceeding  five  years,  or  such 

time  as  the  Legislature  may  deem  proper. 

Some  counties  allow  to  county  prisoners  gain  time  for  good  conduct 

and   faithful   service.      Some   counties   do   not.       All   county   prisoners 

should  receive  such  gain  time  as  a  matter  of  right.      County  prisoners 

should  also  be  given  some  moral  or  religious  instruction.      Under  the 

contract,  this  is  done  for  State  prisoners. 

Governor's  Message,  pp.   16-23. 

JAMES  H.  HAWLEY 

GOVERNOR  OF  IDAHO 

"Provision  certainly  should  be  made  for  the  employment  of  the  con- 
victs. The  institution  should  be  made  as  nearly  self-supporting  as  possi- 
ble. We  cannot  under  the  terms  of  the  Constitution  work  the  convicts 
except  upon  public  works  of  the  State  and  upon  penitentiary  grounds,  nor 
if  we  could  would  it  be  proper  to  put  this  convict  labor  in  competition 
with  that  of  our  citizens.  I  suggest  to  you  the  propriety  of  providing 
for  a  manufacturing  industry  that  would  not  conflict  with  any  of  the  in- 
dustries carried  on  in  the  State,  but  would  enable  the  labor  of  the  convicts 
to  be  profitably  employed  and  thus  save  much  of  the  expenses  entailed  by 
their  maintenance. 

Another  matter  worthy  of  consideration  is  the  establishment  of  a 
school  within  the  penitentiary.  A  large  proportion  of  the  convicts  are 
young  men  who  have  had  but  little  advantages  in  the  way  of  education. 
It  strikes  me  that  a  school  could  be  established  within  the  penitentiary 
without  any  particular  expense  to  the  State,  using  some  of  the  better 
educated  convicts  as  teachers,  which  would  do  much  to  reform  the 
younger  convicts  and  better  qualify  them  after  their  discharge  to  honestly 
earn  their  living." 

Governor's  Message,  p.  43. 

CHARLES  S.  DENEEN 

GOVERNOR  OF  ILLINOIS 

"Your  attention  is  respectfully  called  to  the  development  of  the  manu- 
facture of  limestone  dust  for  fertilizing  purposes  at  the  Southern  Illinois 


138  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

Penitentiary,  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made  in  connection 
with  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  of  the  University.  The  growth 
of  this  work  has  made  it  possible  to  furnish  employment  to  an  increasing 
number  of  inmates  of  the  penitentiary  which  very  much  lessens  compe- 
tition with  existing  industries.  It  is  the  constant  aim  of  the  authorities 
in  charge  of  prison  labor  in  the  State  to  find  employment  of  such  a  char- 
acter as  to  accomplish  this  purpose,  and  there  is  reason  to  think  that  the 
demand  for  limestone  dust  in  the  near  future  will  greatly  aid  them  in 
their  purpose  by  affording  employment  to  an  increasing  number. 

The  first  of  the  mills  for  the  manufacture  of  limestone  dust  was 
installed  in  1906.  The  increasing  demand  for  the  product  since  that  time 
is  shown  by  the  following  report  of  shipments : 

1906   122       tons 

1907   1519  3/4  " 

1908    2428  " 

1909    4346 

1910     136523/5  " 

So  great  was  the  demand  for  this  material  that  in  1909  the  Southern 
Illinois  Penitentiary  could  not  supply  more  than  one-half  of  the  orders 
received,  although  a  second  plant  with  three  times  the  capacity  of  the  first 
was  added,  thus  giving  the  penitentiary  four  times  its  former  producing 
capacity.  Many  orders  placed  by  farmers  for  this  dust  were  cancelled 
because  it  was  impossible  to  fill  them  in  time. 

The  possible  capacity  of  the  two  dust  mills  now  installed  at  the 
Southern  Illinois  Penitentiary  is  estimated  by  the  penitentiary  authori- 
ties at  from  45,000  to  50,000  tons  per  annum.  The  authorities  of  the 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station  express  the  opinion  that  the  demand  in 
the  immediate  future  will  require  the  installment  of  machinery  for  the 
production  of  at  least  100,000  tons  for  the  year  1912.  Here,  then,  is  a 
growing  employment  for  the  inmates  of  the  penitentiary,  which  is,  at 
the  same  time,  a  great  benefit  to  the  agricultural  interests  of  the  State. 
It  is  esimated  that  6,000,000  acres  in  twenty-three  counties  in  southern 
Illinois  require  the  application  of  limestone  dust  to  remove  the  acidity 
of  the  soil.  This  double  advantage  to  agriculture  and  prison  industry 
justifies  me  in  commending  to  your  careful  consideration  the  desirability 
of  following  the  suggestion  that  the  producing  capacity  of  the  Southern 


APPENDIX    II.  139 

Illinois  Penitentiary  in  limestone  dust  should  be  increased  to  the  figure 
named  and  I  urge  that  appropriations  adequate  for  the  purpose  be  made. 

Governor's  message — pp.  33-34- 

THOMAS  R.  MARSHALL 

GOVERNOR  OF  INDIANA 

"In  compliance  with  an  Act  of  the  General  Assembly  of  1909  I  ap- 
pointed Harry  Slough,  Edgar  A.  Perkins  and  Charles  F.  Woerner  to 
serve  with  the  Superintendent  of  the  Reformatory  and  the  Warden  of 
the  State  Prison  as  a  commission  to  investigate  the  question  of  so-called 
prison  labor  and  to  report.  I  submit  herewith  the  findings  of  the  com- 
mission, together  with  a  supplementary  report  by  Messrs.  Slough  and 
Perkins.  I  know  no  reason  why  the  products  of  our  penal  institutions 
should  not  be  used  by  the  other  institutions  and  municipalities  of  this 
State  as  rapidly  as  present  prison  contracts  expire.  I  recommend,  there- 
fore, particularly  in  relation  to  the  Reformatory,  that  the  statute  be  so 
changed  as  to  enable  the  superintendents  of  the  various  public  institutions 
of  Indiana  to  fix  the  prices  of  the  Reformatory  products  and  to  require 
the  superintendents  to  take  those  products  at  the  prices  fixed  by  them. 
This  would  not  impose  any  burden  upon  the  State  and  would  prevent  the 
Reformatory  from  competing  with  free  labor ;  and  as  the  contracts  expire 
at  the  State  Prison  I  recommend  a  like  course  of  action." 

Governor's  Message,  p.  8. 

BERYL  F.  CARROLL 

GOVERNOR  OF  IOWA 

"The  work  of  establishing  a  reformatory  at  Anamosa  has  only  been 
fairly  begun.  While  I  have  no  desire  to  criticise  what  has  been  done, 
there  is  no  question  but  that  it  should  be  extended.  Men  who  are  sent 
out  from  the  institution  ought  to  be  able  to  take  up  some  regular  line  of 
work  and  the  fact  that  they  are  not  able  to  do  so  makes  it  difficult  for 
employment  to  be  found  for  many  of  them  and  where  men  are  not  able 
to  secure  employment  there  is  much  greater  danger  that  they  will  go 
wrong.  Our  institution  is  much  behind  those  of  some  other  States  in 
respect  to  the  training  given  the  men  at  the  reformatory  and  I  do  not 
deem  it  necessary  to  more  than  call  your  attention  to  this  matter. 


140  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

The  question  of  providing  a  means  whereby  a  part  of  the  earnings  of 
each  prisoner  may  be  used  for  the  support  of  those  dependent  upon  him 
is  of  vital  importance,  as  many  women  and  children  are  left  as  objects 
of  charity  and  often  to  suffer  severely  by  reason  of  having  no  one  to  assist 
in  their  support.  Where  there  is  no  one  dependent  upon  the  prisoner 
the  fund  might  be  allowed  to  accumulate  and  be  turned  over  to  him  at  the 
time  of  his  release  to  assist  him  in  getting  started.  I,  however,  seriously 
question  the  wisdom  of  turning  money  over  to  a  prisoner  to  be  used  upon 
himself  while  in  prison." 

Governor's  Message,  p.  33 

WALTER  R.  STUBBS 

GOVERNOR  OF  KANSAS 

"A  large  number  of  prisoners  are  now  working  ten  hours  a  day  and 
six  days  in  the  week  in  the  State  Penitentiary,  manufacturing  twine  and 
brick,  digging  coal  and  working  on  the  farm  for  the  benefit  of  the  State. 
The  State  pays  its  prisoners  three  and  one-third  cents  a  day  in  cash  in 
addition  to  board  and  clothes.  The  twine  plant  earns  from  two  to  three 
thousand  dollars  per  month.  The  coal  and  brick  plants  are  very  profitable 
with  labor  employed  on  the  above  basis ;  but  what  becomes  of  the  helpless, 
penniless  wife  and  children,  or,  perhaps,  a  dependent  father  or  mother, 
left  to  struggle  and  suft'er  in  poverty  and  humiliation  at  home?  It  is 
my  opinion  that  when  a  woman  marries  a  man,  and  children  are  born  as 
a  result  of  that  marriage,  the  wife  and  children  have  the  first  claim  on  that 
man  and  his  labor.  The  claim  of  the  State  is  inferior  to  the  claim  of 
the  wife  and  children.  The  labor  of  a  man,  even  in  the  penitentiary,  is 
worth  more  than  three  and  one-third  cents  in  cash  per  day  and  his  board 
and  clothes,  and  I  recommend  that  the  net  earnings  above  cost  of  food 
and  clothing  of  prisoners  in  the  penitentiary  who  have  families  in  Kansas 
be  paid  to  those  families  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  home  intact 
until  the  prisoner  can  again  return  to  his  own." 

Governor's   Message,   p.   5. 

JARED  Y.  SANDERS 

GOVERNOR  OF  LOUISIANA 

"The  use  of  State  convicts  in  the  construction  of  the  public  highways 
of  Louisiana  has  passed  the  experimental  stage.     It  has  been  found  by 


APPENDIX    II.  141 

actual   experience   that  the   use   of   the   convicts    in   this   work   is  both 
economical  and  efficient. 

There  are  at  present,  owned  by  the  State,  four  farms,  which,  with 
our  levee  camps,  absorb  nearly  all  of  the  convict  population,  leaving  a 
very  small  relative  number  that  can  be  used  in  the  construction  of 
highways. 

I,  therefore  recommend  to  the  General  Assembly  that  legislation  be 
enacted  to  authorize  and  empower  the  Board  of  Control  of  the  State 
Penitentiary  to  dispose  of  all  these  farms,  except  the  Angola  property, 
in  order  that  a  large  number  of  convicts  be  made  available  for  road 
construction. 

I  recommend  legislation  that  will  enable  the  Board  of  Control  of  the 
State  Penitentiary  to  erect  and  equip  a  Sugar  Factory  upon  the  Angola 
property." 

Governor's  Message — p.  17. 

AUSTIN  L.  CROTHERS 

GOVERNOR  OF  MARYLAND 

"The  Road  Commission  is  most  anxious  that  some  way  may  be  found 
in  which  the  cost  of  the  construction  of  these  roads  can  be  reduced,  and 
I  am  of  the  opinion  that  this  purpose  can  be  materially  effected  by  the 
passage  of  a  law  authorizing  the  use  of  convict  labor  from  the  jails 
and  other  penal  institutions  of  the  State  on  road  work  in  getting  out 
material  in  quarries  and  in  other  capacities  where  they  can  be  safely  and 
conveniently  used." 

Laws  have  been  passed  in  many  States  of  the  South  providing  for 
this  kind  of  labor  on  the  public  highways,  and  it  has  worked  most  suc- 
cessfully and  great  improvement  of  the  public  roads  has  resulted.  By 
doing  this  a  return  can  be  made  for  the  money  expended  in  maintaining 
prisoners  in  jail  and  in  other  prisons  throughout  the  State,  and  would 
be  much  better  for  the  prisoners  themselves  that  they  have  such  open- 
air  employment,  instead  of  being  confined  in  prison  idle,  where  they 
frequently  become  victims  of  tuberculosis  and  mental  diseases. 

I,  therefore,  strongly  recommend  the  passage  of  legislation  enabling 
this  to  be  done,  which  should  be  of  a  character  which  would  prevent 
any  abuses  to  the  convict  when  engaged  in  such  work,  and  that  would 


142  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

prevent  their  escape,  and  should  be  broad  enough  in  its  provisions  to 
permit  the  road  authorities  to  avail  themselves  of  its  use  for  any  kind 
of  road  work,  either  on  improved  roads  or  repair  of  the  ordinary  dirt 
roads  of  the  State. 

Governor's  Message — pp.   17-18. 


CHASE  S.  OSBORN 

GOVERNOR  OF  MICHIGAN 

"I  desire  to  especially  call  your  attention  to  the  profitable  achievements 
of  the  Detroit  House  of  Correction  as  an  illustration  of  what  may  be 
done  in  the  way  of  prison  labor.  The  problem  of  convict  employment  is 
one  most  difficult  to  solve.  In  several  States  convict  labor  on  the  public 
highways  is  employed  to  advantage.  The  Colorado  honor  system  seems 
to  be  especially  good.  I  hope  convict  labor  on  roads  will  be  given  a  full 
and  fair  trial  in  Michigan.  The  contract  system  seems  to  have  been 
abused  in  Michigan.  Contractors  have  reaped  profits  at  the  expense  of 
Michigan  taxpayers.  I  hope  that  out  of  the  especial  study  of  this  matter, 
directed  by  and  arranged  for  by  the  last  legislature  much  good  shall  come." 

Governor's  Message,  p.   19. 

ADOLPH  O.  EBERHART 

GOVERNOR  OF  MINNESOTA 

"The  Minnesota  State  Prison  is  recognized  as  a  model  institution  of 
its  kind,  and  the  construction  of  new  buildings  is  progressing  rapidly. 
In  the  manufacture  of  farm  machinery  the  State  has  taken  an  advanced 
step  and  the  output  of  231  mowers  and  70  binders  during  the  past  season 
will  undoubtedly  demonstrate  the  importance  of  this  work." 

Governor's  Message,  p.  41. 


HERBERT  S.  HADLEY 

GOVERNOR  OF  MISSOURI 

"The  establishment  of  such  an  institution  would  also,  in  my  opinion, 
furnish  a  good  means  for  a  change  in  the  system  of  contract  labor  that 
now  obtains  and  has  obtained  for  many  years  at  the  State  Penitentiary. 


APPENDIX    II.  143 

The  abandonment  of  this  system  has  been  endorsed  by  both  of  the  leading 
political  parties  in  the  last  two  campaigns  in  their  state  platforms.  But 
the  substitution  of  proper  employment  for  the  2,300  men  and  women 
confined  in  the  State  Penitentiary  for  the  present  system  of  contract 
labor  presents  a  very  difficult  problem.  And  this  question  is  rendered 
more  difficult  by  the  fact  that  this  system  of  labor  has  become  thoroughly 
established  through  the  many  years  that  it  has  been  in  existence.  If  a 
State  Reformatory  could  be  established  and  a  means  of  occupation  pro- 
vided for  those  confined  therein,  other  than  by  contract  labor,  the  system 
could,  after  proper  experiment,  be  extended  to  the  State  Penitentiary. 
But  in  addition  to  this  advantage,  the  benefit  to  society  of  such  an  institu- 
tion is  so  apparent  that  argument  in  its  favor  is  almost  unnecessary." 

Governor's   Message — p.   21. 


ASHTON  C.  SHALLENBERGER 

GOVERNOR  OF  NEBRASKA 

"The  State  Penitentiary  will  also  show  a  small  deficiency.  It  is  not 
so  large  in  amount  as  that  of  two  years  ago  and  if  this  institution  was 
credited  with  a  fair  amount  of  remuneration  for  the  light  and  power  it 
furnishes  to  other  State  buildings  including  the  state  house,  the  gover- 
nor's mansion  and  the  orthopedic  hospital,  it  would  be  self-sustaining. 
The  addition  of  a  shirt  factory  to  the  broom  factory  already  in  operation 
at  the  prison  has  so  increased  the  income  paid  by  this  institution  into  the 
State  Treasury  that  the  warden  is  warranted  in  his  claims  that  he  has 
succeeded  in  putting  the  prison  upon  such  a  sound  business  basis  that  it 
now  is  no  longer  a  charge  upon  the  taxpayers  of  the  State." 

Governor's  Message,  p.   18. 

TASKER  L.  ODDIE 

GOVERNOR  OF  NEVADA 

"In  many  of  the  States  convicts  from  the  penitentiary  are  utilized  in 
highway  construction  with  the  most  satisfactory  results,  both  from  the 
standpoint  of  economy  and  the  benefit  derived  from  wholesome  out-cf- 
door  exercise  by  the  prisoners.  The  system,  which  originated  in  New 
Mexico,  of  employing  convicts  in  road  work,  is  being  adopted,  one  after 


144  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

another,  by  the  northern  States.  Under  this  system  the  detail  of  a  convict 
to  road  work  is  regarded  as  a  privilege.  It  is  in  no  sense  compulsory, 
and  only  the  better  class  of  prisoners  are  assigned  to  it.  The  convicts 
are  required  to  do  a  reasonable  day's  work,  to  obey  the  rules  and  regu- 
lations of  the  road-building  camps,  and  the  only  punishment  for  disobedi- 
ence or  infraction  of  the  rules  is  return  to  confinement  in  the  prison. 
They  are  only  nominally  guarded,  and  are  in  charge  of  an  overseer  who 
directs  their  work.  The  history  of  the  system  in  the  various  States  which 
have  adopted  it  shows  very  few  attempts  by  convicts  to  escape.  Their 
work  in  no  wise  can  be  said  to  be  competitive  with  free  labor,  since,  as 
a  general  rule,  the  construction  of  highways  by  convicts  has  stimulated 
more  road  building  by  free  labor  than  was  ordinarily  done  previous  to  the 
inauguration  of  such  system,  and  the  general  efifect  incident  to  the  con- 
struction of  good  roads  has  been  the  stimulating  of  many  industries  and 
avocations,  affording  employment  for  additional  labor,  which  had  pre- 
viously been  dormant. 

In  the  Nevada  State  Prison  are  about  190  convicts,  possibly  over  100 
of  whom  could  be  used  in  road  building.  In  ordinary  seasons  they  could 
be  so  employed  from  eight  to  nine  months  in  each  year,  and  in  the  course 
of  time  the  splendid  highways  which  such  a  body  of  men  would  construct 
would  be  of  immeasurable  benefit  to  the  State.  The  cost  of  their  main- 
tenance in  this  work  would  be  very  little  greater  than  keeping  them,  as 
now,  in  unwholesome  and  brooding  idleness  within  prison  walls.  Statis- 
tics, moreover,  are  obtainable,  to  show  that  discharged  prisoners  from  the 
road  camps  are  in  a  far  better  physical,  moral  and  mental  condition  to 
rehabilitate  themselves  as  useful  members  of  society  than  those  directly 
discharged  from  prison,  which  is  an  argument  not  secondary  to  any  other 
in  favor  of  the  system.  I  urgently  recommend  legislative  action  in  con- 
formity with  these  views." 

Governor's  Message,  p.  r6. 

JOHN  A.  DIX 

GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK 

"I  am  having  a  special  examination  made  as  to  conditions  existing  in 
this  important  branch  of  the  government  and  hope  before  your  session  is 
far  advanced  to  be  in  position  to  make  to  you  some  extended  recommenda- 
tions on  this  subject." 

Governor's  Message,  p.   14. 


APPENDIX    II.  145 

WILLIAM  W.  KITCHIN 

GOVERNOR  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA 

Commutation  to  County  Prisoners.  "I  recommend  that  commutation 
for  good  behavior  be  allowed  prisoners  on  the  public  roads  of  five  days 
in  each  month  as  is  allowed  in  the  State's  Prison." 

Governor's  Message,  p.  30. 


JUDSON  HARMON 

GOVERNOR  OF  OHIO 

"The  bill  just  mentioned  contained  a  provision  which  is  necessary  to 
prevent  idleness  and  loss  at  the  penitentiary  and  other  institutions.  Under 
the  Wertz  law  the  contract  system  has  now  given  way  to  the  direct  em- 
ployment of  labor  by  the  State.  The  market  for  products  must  be  broad- 
ened so  as  to  include  counties,  townships  and  municipalities  or  the  new 
plan  is  doomed  to  certain  failure." 

Governor's  Message,  p.  15. 


OSWALD  WEST 

GOVERNOR  OF  OREGON 

"There  are  approximately  430  prisoners  now  confined  in  the  State 
Penitentiary.  Many  of  these  prisoners  are  employed  as  helpers  around 
the  institution,  others  in  the  State's  brickyard,  while  a  large  number  of 
them  are  employed  in  the  stove  foundry  in  accordance  with  a  ten-year 
contract  made  by  the  State  November  20,  1907,  with  the  Lowenberg  & 
Going  Co.  The  State  receives  45  cents  per  ten-hour  day  for  their  labor 
and  the  contract  calls  for  the  employment  of  not  less  than  150  men  and 
as  many  more  as  the  company  requires  providing  they  can  be  spared 
without  depriving  the  State  of  necessary  help  around  the  institution. 

Objection  has  been  made  to  the  employment  of  convicts  in  compe- 
tition with  free  labor,  and  there  is  merit  in  the  objection.  But  common 
decency  and  the  consideration  which  we  should  have  for  the  unfortunate 
make  it  imperative  that  the  convicts  be  given  employment  of  some  kind. 
Until  some  unobjectionable  system  of  employment  is  devised  it  would  be 
most  inhuman  to  condemn  these  men  to  idleness  and  to  thus  deprive  them 


146  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

of  the  God-given  blessing  of  useful  occupation.  It  should  be  the  aim  of 
the  State,  therefore,  to  provide  them  as  soon  as  practicable  with  employ- 
ment which  will  remove  them  as  far  as  possible  from  competition  with 
free  labor.  The  best  solution  it  seems  to  me  is  their  employment  in  the 
construction  of  roads.  I  am  advised  that  the  good  roads  measures  which 
are  to  be  introduced  at  this  session  of  the  legislature  will  call  for  the 
use  of  convict  labor,  and,  if  so,  I  hope  the  people  will  give  the  experi- 
ment a  fair  trial,  for  if  it  proves  a  success  it  will  not  only  insure  good 
roads  for,  but  a  great  saving  to,  the  State,  and  will  provide  healthful  out- 
door work  for  the  prisoners  and  go  a  long  way  toward  putting  an  end  to 
competition  between  free  and  prison  labor." 

Governor's   Message,  p.   12. 

ROBERT  S.  VESSEY 

GOVERNOR  OF  SOUTH  DAKOTA 

"In  this  connection,  it  is  my  desire  to  add  a  few  words  in  the  interest 
of  the  families  of  prisoners.  It  is  very  seldom,  if  ever,  that  the  person 
who  is  sentenced  for  a  crime  bears  alone  the  consequences  of  his  mis- 
doing. If  a  father  is  thrown  into  prison  the  wife  and  little  children  are 
very  often  left  poverty-stricken  and  without  support  and  certainly  such  a 
family  has  an  undeniable  right  to  public  assistance.  The  question  for  you 
to  solve  is,  'How  shall  this  assistance  be  given?'  If  the  prisoner  is 
allowed  to  work  and  is  earning  money,  a  portion  of  his  earnings  should 
surely  be  employed  to  assist  his  needy  family  and  as  much  as  possible  re- 
lieve their  suffering.  I  ask  that  you  give  this  phase  of  the  prison  labor 
question  your  deliberate  consideration,  and  that  you  investigate  the  meth- 
ods employed  in  the  various  States  which  serve  to  safeguard  the  home 
and  which  are  a  means  of  protecting  society  in  general  from  the  disastrous 
results  of  the  presence  of  degraded  families,  suffering  because  of  the 
fall  of  the  bread-winner." 

Governor's  Message,  p.  9. 

BENJAMIN  W.  HOOPER 

GOVERNOR  OF  TENNESSEE 

"Several  of  the  States  are  engaged  in  building  roads  with  convict  labor. 
To  what  degree  this  method  has  been  successful,  and  to  what  extent  it  can 


APPENDIX    II.  147 


be  adopted  in  Tennessee,  should  be  investigated  by  the  Legislature.  It 
would  carry  with  it  the  desirable  incident  of  diminishing  the  competition 
of  convict  labor  with  the  free  labor  in  the  mines.  The  problem  of  prop- 
erly caring  for  the  convicts  on  the  road  should  not  be  overlooked." 

Governor's  Message,  p.    13. 


O.  B.  COLQUITT 

GOVERNOR  OF  TEXAS 

*T  shall  not  undertake  a  full  discussion  of  this  important  subject  at 
this  time.  Later  I  will  probably  discuss  the  matter  fully  in  a  special 
message.  The  act  of  the  Fourth  Special  Session  of  the  Thirty-first 
Legislature  creating  the  Prison  Commission  and  providing  for  the  manage- 
ment of  the  prison  system  of  the  State  goes  too  much  into  detail.  After 
a  few  weeks  study  and  practical  efifort  to  apply  the  law,  the  Prison 
Commissioners  may  be  able  to  make  some  suggestions  for  practical 
changes,  and  if  so  they  will  be  communicated  to  you,  with  such  recom- 
mendations and  observations  as  are  deemed  advisable.  I  believe  it  would 
have  been  far  better  had  the  Legislature  been  content  to  declare  the 
general  purposes  and  policies  of  the  State  in  the  management  of  the  penal 
system  and  then  provided  the  Prison  Commission  with  ample  powers  to 
issue  orders  and  make  all  adequate  and  necessary  regulations  to  carry 
such  general  purposes  and  policies  into  effect.  A  law  modeled  after  the 
Railroad  Commission  Act,  passed  in  189 1,  would  have  been  far  more 
practical  and  satisfactory  in  its  application  and  results.  Unless  the  law 
is  remodeled,  the  cost  of  carrying  into  effect  and  operating  the  system 
is  going  to  be  very  largely  more  than  under  the  present  statute.  Some 
estimate  of  the  increase  in  the  cost  will  approximate  a  million  dollars 
or  more  per  annum." 

Governor's  Message   (House  journal,  p.  238.) 

WILLIAM  SPRY 

GOVERNOR  OF  UTAH 

"It  is  the  desire  of  the  Prison  Board,  the  Warden  and  the  Governor 
to  place  this  institution  more  nearly  on  a  self-supporting  basis,  and  much 
inquiry  and  attention  has  been  devoted  to  this  matter  during  the  past 


I4S  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

two  years.  As  a  means  to  this  end  the  board  is  asking  for  an  appro- 
priation to  cover  the  cost  of  fruit  trees  which  it  is  designed  to  culti- 
vate on  the  high  land  of  the  prison  reservation." 

Governor's  Message — p.  18. 

MARION  E.  HAY 

GOVERNOR  OF  WASHINGTON 

"The  use  of  convicts  in  highway  construction  and  in  rock-crushing 
plants  has  proved  highly  successful.  I  recommend  that,  after  a  convict 
has  served  his  minimum  sentence  on  either  road  work  or  in  the  crushing 
plants  or  six  months  after  he  has  been  transferred  from  the  penitentiary 
to  road  camp  or  rock-crushing  plant,  the  State  place  to  the  convict's  credit 
fifty  cents  for  each  day's  work ;  that,  if  the  convict  has  a  family  or  others 
dependent  upon  him  for  support,  this  money  be  remitted  quarterly  to 
those  dependent  upon  him;  and  that,  if  he  has  no  one  dependent  upon 
him,  this  money  be  placed  to  his  credit  and  paid  to  him  upon  his  final 
discharge.  This  should  be  made  a  charge  against  the  road  appropriation 
for  prisoners  employed  on  highway  construction,  and  against  the  revolv- 
ing fund  when  employed  on  crushing  plants." 

Governor's  Message,  pp.  9-10. 

WILLIAM  E.  GLASSCOCK 

GOVERNOR  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA 

"Our  laws  should  be  so  amended  as  to  make  it  mandatory  on  county 
courts  to  work  able-bodied  male  prisoners,  incarcerated  in  our  county 
jails,  on  the  public  highways.  Some  of  our  county  prisons  are  filled 
with  strong  men  and  they  could  render  a  real  service  to  the  state  by 
assisting  us  in  solving  the  problem  of  better  roads." 

Governor's  Message — p.  36. 

JOSEPH  M.  CAREY 

GOVERNOR  OF  WYOMING 

"It  is  with  some  reluctance  that  I  speak  of  the  penitentiary  at  Rawlins 
for  the  reason  that  it  was  much  discussed  in  the  late  political  campaign. 
Both  political  parties,  as  well  as  myself,  in  an  independent  letter,  declared 
against  the  contract  system  that  has  been  in  vogue  since  the  organization 
of  the  State  Government.    In  an  unofficial  way  I  came  to  the  conclusion 


AI'l'Ii\!)I.\    II.  149 

ihat  the  manner  in  which  this  institution  has  been  conducted  has  been  a 
disgrace  to  the  State.  It  is  a  sad  thing  to  become  a  convict.  A  man  who 
is  so  unfortunate  as  to  commit  a  crime  and  become  subject  to  the  penal- 
ties of  the  law  is  at  once  ostracized ;  with  the  best  of  intentions  it  takes 
years  for  him  to  overcome  the  odium ;  and  yet  he  is  none  the  less  a  man, 
formed  after  the  image  of  his  Maker,  and  is  especially  entitled  to  the  con- 
sideration of  those  who  have  no  inclination  to  violate  the  law.  I  believe 
in  uplifting  the  unfortunate,  even  the  criminal.  Criminals  must  be  pun- 
ished and  have  to  be  punished,  but  in  the  punishment  of  them  it  should 
ever  be  kept  in  view  that  the  convict's  condition  may  be  improved  that 
he  may  repent  of  that  which  led  to  his  downfall,  and  be  made  a  good 
and  useful  citizen.  It  is  not  expected  that  he  should  have  liberty;  that 
he  should  be  fed  and  clothed  at  great  expense  or  that  he  should  be  treated 
as  a  child  for  the  violation  of  the  rules  of  the  penitentiary,  but  modern 
civilization  demands  that  he  should  have  suitable  food  and  his  punish- 
ment should  not  be  cruel,  and  when  freedom  comes  there  should  be  an 
incentive  for  him  to  be  a  good  citizen.  I  believe  that  there  should  be  a 
thorough  examination  of  the  conditions  as  they  have  existed  under  the 
contract  system  at  Rawlins,  and  that  it  should  be  disclosed  to  the  people 
of  this  State  who  have  been  the  beneficiaries  under  the  contracts.  Through 
a  proper  officer  I  believe  the  penitentiary  should  be  managed  by  the  State ; 
that  there  should  be  definite  rules  for  the  government  of  its  inmates ; 
that  steady  work  should  be  given  to  the  convicts  and  that  they  should 
have  palatable  and  healthful  food.  I  believe  that  where  practicable  the 
convicts  who  are  sufficiently  reliable  should  be  given  work  on  the  public 
highways  in  the  open  air,  and  that  the  others  should  be  given  work  inside 
of  the  penitentiary.  Those  who  are  strong  should  be  compelled  to  do 
hard  work ;  those  who  are  weak  should  be  given  light  work.  The  prison 
should  become  a  great  industrial  factory  and  made  as  nearly  self-sup- 
porting as  necessary.  The  convict  should  contribute  to  his  own  support 
and  to  the  support  of  his  family  if  he  has  one.  A  small  percentage  of  his 
earnings  should  be  set  aside  for  his  sole  benefit,  to  be  used  by  him  or  for 
him  when  liberated.  The  convicts  should  have  proper  medical  attendance. 
They  should  be  given  an  opportunity  for  worship  uncontrolled  save  by 
their  own  desires.  To  carry  out  these  plans  may  need  additional  legis- 
lation." 

Governor's  Message,  p.  27. 


150  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

PRISON    LABOR  IN   LEGISLATION. 

Compiled  September,  191 1. 

ADMINISTRATION  AND  INSPECTION. 

Alabama — Office  of  State  Prison  Inspector  created ;  term  6  years ; 
salary  $4000;  only  physician  eligible;  appointment  by  Governor;  pro- 
vision for  assistance;  broad  powers  over  jails  and  almshouses.      No.  303. 
Alabama — Prison  inspector's  duties  are  extended  to  visitation  of  all 
state  institutions  under  direction  of  the  Governor.  No.  530. 

Connecticut — Contracts  for  the  labor  of  inmates  of  penal  or  other 
state  or  county  institutions  in  the  manufacture  of  goods  are  to  be  made 
only  after  public  notice  in  at  least  three  daily  papers ;  the  most  advan- 
tageous bid  must  be  accepted ;  and  no  contract  may  be  made  for  a 
period  exceeding  four  years.  The  act  does  not  apply  to  contracts  for 
the  labor  of  inmates  of  county  institutions  in  farm,  domestic  or  casual 
service.  C.  275. 

Florida — No  act  leading  to  the  leasing  of  state  convicts  is  permitted 
until  July  ist,  1913  (con.  res.  30).  A  committee  of  five,  two  from  the 
Senate  and  three  from  the  House,  to  visit  the  location  for  the  State  Peni- 
tentiary purchased  from  the  Empire  Lumber  Company,  inspect  other 
lands  held  on  option  and  report  to  the  Legislature  (con.  res.  8).  Appro- 
priation of  $50,000  is  granted  to  purchase  grounds  held  on  option  for 
the  state  prison  farm,  to  build  and  equip  necessary  buildings  needed 
upon  the  expiration  of  the  state  convict  lease,  Dec.  31st,  1913.  Title 
to  grounds  to  be  searched  and  contiguous  parcels  of  land  secured  and 
detached  parcels  sold.  (C.  6134).  Tax  assessor  is  notified  that  the  lands 
are  state  lands  and  not  taxable  in  191 1.  con.  res.  12. 

Idaho — A  Prison  Labor  Commission  is  created  (consisting  of  the 
warden  of  the  penitentiary,  as  chairman,  and  two  others  appointed  by 
the  Governor  within  sixty  days,  to  hold  office  without  salary  until  Jan. 
1st,  1913),  its  duty  being  to  investigate  the  employment  of  prisoners 
at  the  penitentiary,  propose  amendments  to  present  laws  and  report  to 
the  next  legislature.   Appropriation  of  $500  for  expenses.       H.  J.  R.,  24. 

Kansas — The  Penitentiary  Board  and  the  Reformatory  Board  are 
consolidated,  July  ist,  191 1,  into  the  Board  of  Penal  Institutions,  a  bi- 
partisan board  of  three  electors,  none  of  whom  are  office  holders  or 
resident  in  the  same  subdivisions  of  the  state,  appointed  by  the  Governor 


APPENDIX    II,  151 

with  the  consent  of  the  Senate  for  terms  ending  one  each  year.  This 
Board  has  full  power  to  run  the  institutions.  A  Treasurer,  to  be  elected 
from  the  Board  and  duly  bonded,  has  power  to  pay  $5.00  a  day  and 
travelling  expenses  to  members  of  the  Board.  Officers  of  the  institutions 
are  not  allowed  to  be  relatives  of  supervising  officers.  C.  298. 

Massachusetts — Prison  commissioners  are  instructed  to  report  to 
the  next  general  court  a  plan  for  the  extension  of  the  state  use  system 
or  such  other  system  of  convict  labor  as  will  injure  free  workingmen  the 
least.  Res.  C.  143. 

Michigan — The  extension  of  the  act  establishing  the  Detroit  House 
of  Correction  allows  the  establishment  of  similar  institutions  in  any  city 
of  100,000.  C.  278. 

Missouri — The  prison  physician  is  added  as  an  exception  to  the  rule 
providing  that  prisoners  shall  not  be  hired  out  for  domestic  service. 

P.  124. 

Nebraska — John  Howard's  Birthday  is  to  be  observed  as  a  legal 
holiday  in  all  penal  and  reformatory  institutions.  C.  135. 

North  Carolina — The  Board  of  County  Commissioners  of  Bruns- 
wick County  is  authorized  to  establish  a  convict  force ;  convicts  to  be 
sentenced  to  work.  S.  B.  1530. 

N.  Carolina — Governor  is  authorized  to  appoint  a  committee  of 
three  to  consider  the  question  of  a  workhouse  or  reformatory,  to  report 
in  1913  ;  $800.00  is  appropriated.  Approved  Apr.  13,  191 1. 

N.  Carolina — Felons'  stripes  are  worn  by  felons  while  working. 
Misdemeanants  are  required  to  wear  a  different  uniform  or  citizens' 
clothes.  An  official  guilty  of  violation  commits  a  misdemeanor  and  is 
liable  to  fine  or  imprisonment  or  both  and  also  suit  for  damages.       C.  64. 

N.  Carolina — A  Reform  and  Manual  Training  School  for  Colored 
Youths  (seven  to  sixteen  years)  is  incorporated  under  a  board  of  trus- 
tees. The  manual  training  department  is  to  be  established  and  all  inmates 
are  to  be  taught  useful  trades.  The  manual  labor  is  to  be  as  the  officials 
direct,  emphasis  being  placed  on  how  to  work  and  be  industrious.  The 
farm  and  workshops  are  to  be  established  to  keep  regularly  at  work  all 
able-bodied  inmates,  C.  122 

North  Dakota — Board  of  Control  of  State  Institutions  is  provided. 
It  is  to  be  bi-partisan  and  consist  of  three  members,  appointed  by  the 


152  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

governor,  with  the  consent  of  the  senate,  for  a  term  of  two  years. 
Salaries  $3000.00  a  year  and  travelling  expenses.  Appropriation  of 
$15,000  annually  to  cover  expenses.  Inspection  by  State  Auditing  De- 
partment. Members  to  give  bond  of  $25,000  and  not  to  hold  other 
lucrative  office  in  state  or  state  institution.  Board  has  full  control  over 
charitable,  penal  and  reformatory  institutions  and  is  to  prepare  annual 
statement  showing  itemized  expenditure  of  each  of  said  institutions. 
Board  reports  biennially  to  governor.  H.  B,  No.  271. 

S.  Carolina — A  county  House  of  Correction  for  females  convicted 
for  other  than  capital  offences,  is  provided,  to  be  administered  by  the 
county  board  of  commissioners ;  inmates  are  to  be  employed  in  useful 
occupations.  C.  87. 

S.  Carolina — The  investigation  of  the  penitentiary  (knitting  rhill) 
is  required  by  resolution  to  be  undertaken  by  the  State  Board  of  Health; 
also  steps  are  to  be  taken  to  prevent  spread  of  tuberculosis.  The  expenses 
to  be  paid  out  of  the  Penitentiary  fund.  No.  285. 

Tennessee — $50,000  is  appropriated  for  the  erection  of  suitable 
buildings  and  purchase  of  materials  for  equipment  of  the  Tenessee  Re- 
formatory for  Boys,  to  be  located  on  the  farm  already  purchased.  Board 
of  Trustees  to  supervise  erection  and  equipment  of  said  building.  Due 
publicity  before  acceptance  of  bids.  Contract  to  be  let  to  lowest  respon- 
sible bidder.  S.  B.,No.  105. 

Texas — A  constitutional  amendment  is  to  go  to  the  people  provid- 
ing for  the  creation  of  a  Prison  Commission  consisting  of  three,  holding 
office  for  six  years,  one  appointed  every  two  years  by  the  Governor,  to 
have  full  control  of  prisons.  H.  J.  R.,  No.  22. 

FARMS. 

Maine — Convict  labor  regulations  of  county  farms  extended  to  inebri- 
ate farms.  C.  yj. 

Minnesota — Farm  colony  for  inebriates  is  established.         S.  F.  149. 

North  Carolina — Commissioners  of  Jackson  County  to  work  con- 
victs sentenced  for  not  more  than  ten  months  and  those  confined  for 
non-payment  of  costs  on  county  farm.  S.  B.  682. 

Oklahoma — For  a  farm  site  adjoining  Reformatory  $12,000  is 
appropriated.  C.  154. 


APPENDIX    II.  153 

Pennsylvania — The  Board  of  Inspectors  of  the  Western  Peniten- 
tiary is  empowered  to  secure  one  thousand  five  hundred  acres  of  forest 
land  and  take  the  necessary  steps  toward  the  erection  of  a  suitable  insti- 
tution. "The  impossibility  under  the  existing  laws  relating  to  manu- 
factured products,  to  keep  the  inmates  sufficiently  employed,  by  reason 
whereof  a  large  number  thereof  become  insane  and  permanent  charges 
upon  the  state,"  is  the  cause  of  the  change.  $1,250,000  is  appropriated. 
Able-bodied  male  convicts  are  to  assist  in  the  improvement  of  the  tract 
and  construction  of  the  building.  No.  37. 

MINES. 

Alabama — Convicts  mines  are  to  be  inspected  and  regulated  under 
new  mining  act  which  provides  for  state  inspector,  etc.  No.  493. 

Kansas — Penitentiary  Board  is  authorized  to  purchase  two  coal 
mines  at  $3,000  each.  C.  300. 

PRISONER'S  EARNINGS. 

Florida — Fines  and  cost  reduced  by  credit  for  imprisonment  over 
and  above  subsistence.  C.  6176. 

Maine — In  cases  of  prisoners  committed  for  desertion,  keepers  of 
county  institutions  notify  weekly  the  county  commissioners  of  the  num- 
ber of  days'  work  done  by  prisoners.  Commissioner  sends  order  upon 
treasury  to  aid  in  support  of  families.  C.  144. 

Massachusetts — In  case  of  desertion  and  non-support  the  court 
imposing  the  sentence  may,  if  he  finds  destitution  amongst  the  depend- 
ents, order  that  fifty  cents  for  each  day's  hard  labor  performed  by  the 
prisoner  be  paid  for  relief.  C.  456,  sec.  8. 

Michigan — Wages  are  paid  the  convicts  in  the  wisdom  of  the 
board.  The  wage  is  for  over-time  work  beyond  the  fixed  task,  and  is 
paid  out  of  the  sale  of  the  products;  a  limit  of  15  cents  a  day  is  set. 

No.  239. 

Missouri — An  appropriation  is  allowed  by  a  county  court  to  the 
limit  of  $12,000  for  the  support  of  widows  and  the  wives  of  prisoners 
who  are  poor  and  with  children  under  14  years  of  age.  Page  121. 

Rhode  Island — Fines  can  be  worked  ofT  at  fifty  cents  a  day  for  first 
thirty  days ;  one  dollar  for  the  ensuing  days,  instead  of  twenty-five  and 
fifty  cents  as  formerly.  C.  669. 


154  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

PROHIBITION  OF  SALE  OF  GOODS. 

Montana — The  sale  of  prison-made  goods  (not  marked  prison- 
made)  is  prohibited.  Penalty  for  violation  not  less  than  $25.00  or  more 
than  $300.00,  or  imprisonment  for  not  less  than  30  days  or  more  than 
90  days,  or  both.  C.  32. 

Oregon — The  possession,  for  the  purpose  of  sale,  of  convict  goods 
not  branded  "convict-made,"  is  a  misdemeanor,  with  penalty  of  $1,000, 
or  imprisonment  for  one  year  or  both.  Exception  is  made  to  goods 
manufactured  under  existing  convict  contracts  with  the  state  of  Oregon^ 
(C.  21).  Congress  is  memorialized  to  prevent  the  flooding  of  the 
state  with  convict  goods  to  the  detriment  of  home  industries,  which 
results  from  lack  of  protection  on  account  of  the  ruling  of  the  courts 
in  reference  to  interstate  commerce  laws,  by  enacting  a  law  requiring 
all  convict  goods  in  interstate  commerce  to  bear  certain  labels. 

H.  J.  M.,  5. 

PUBLIC  ACCOUNT. 

Kansas — ^$105,000  is  appropriated  for  repairs  of  shops,  mines,  and 
for  the  payment  of  wages  for  convicts  at  the  Penitentiary,  together  with 
sums  for  salaries  of  foremen  and  officials  of  brickyards,  clothing  shops 
and  mines,  including  fire  bosses.  The  employment  of  convicts  by  pri- 
vate citizens  outside  of  the  penitentiary  grounds  for  hire  or  otherwise 
is  prohibited ;  surplus  convict  labor  is  to  be  used  in  extending  and  repair- 
ing state  and  county  roads  and  upon  other  work  exclusively  for  the 
benefit  of  the  state.  Other  persons  than  convicts  are  not  to  be  boarded 
or  fed  at  the  penitentiary  at  the  expense  of  the  state.  Employees  of  the 
penitentiary,  having  families,  are  allowed  150  bushels  of  coal  annually 
free  and  additional  coal  at  cost,  beginning  with  the  fiscal  year  1912.  The 
warden  is  required  to  give  bond  for  $100,000,  the  premium  to  be  paid 
from  an  appropriation  made  for  the  maintenance  of  the  twine  plant. 
C.  13.  A  revolving  fund  is  established  by  the  appropriation  of  $31,280.90, 
from  the  profits  of  the  binder-twine  plant.  The  chief  clerk  is  to  be  clerk 
of  the  binder-twine  plant  and  give  bond.  C.  14. 

Michigan — The  state  account  fund  is  established  by  the  appropria- 
tion of  $125,000  to  be  used  for  the  state  prison  and  the  branch  peniten- 

^Declared  unconstitutional,   September   5th,   191 1. 


APPENDIX    II.  155 

tiary  in  their  manufacturing,  as  required  by  law,  together  with  added 
authority  to  the  warden  and  Board  of  Control  to  appoint  superintend- 
ents and  other  mechanical  employees  to  carry  on  the  work,  and  to  fix 
their  compensation,  to  remodel  buildings  and  buy  machinery.  When, 
by  the  sale  of  the  products,  the  fund  reaches  $100,000,  the  surplus  may 
be  used  in  buying  machinery  and  constructing  new  buildings.  Bonds  of 
$50,000  are  required  of  the  warden.  Price  of  goods  is  fixed  once  a  year 
unless  price  should  prove  unfair;  preference  is  given  to  purchasers 
within  the  state  and  in  case  of  bad  debts  the  state  shall  be  a  preferred 
creditor.  Acts  Nos.  151- 152. 

Michigan — The  warden  in  the  name  of  the  prison,  with  the  ap- 
proval of  the  board,  may  bring  action  to  recover  moneys  owed  to  the 
institution.  No.  219. 

Minnesota — Industrial  work  in  the  state  prison  at  Stillwater  is  to 
receive  from  the  building  fund  $225,000  annually,  to  be  provided  by  a 
general  tax  levy.  H.  F.  517. 

N.  Dakota — Limitations  are  placed  on  sale  of  products  of  binder- 
twine  plant  after  May  ist,  except  that  the  sale  of  rope  is  unrestricted. 

C.  203. 

N.  Dakota — The  state  prison  revolving  fund  is  established  by  the 
appropriation  of  25  per  cent  of  the  yearly  net  profits  of  the  penitentiary 
binder-twine  plant.  This  fund  upon  reaching  $100,000  is  available  for 
running  expenses  for  a  farm-machine  and  implement  factory  (binders, 
mowers  and  hayrakes)  which  may  then  be  installed.  The  warden  is 
given  travelling  expenses  to  study  methods  in  other  prisons.         C.  204. 

Washington — The  product  of  the  jute  factory  is  to  be  sold  as  for- 
merly, but  additional  precautions  are  to  be  taken  in  the  manner  of  sale. 

C.  132. 

Wisconsin — For  equipment  of  binder-twine  plant  $450,000  is  appro- 
priated to  be  paid  half  Jan.  ist,  1912,  and  half  Jan.  ist,  1913,  from 
the  state  treasury.  Warden  is  to  give  bond  for  $50,000.  Revolving  fund 
created  refunding  to  the  treasury  after  it  reaches  $100,000.  Price  of 
twine  fixed  by  the  Board  of  Control,  but  in  selling  preference  is  to  be 
given  citizens  of  the  state.  C.  377. 


156  PENAL    SERVITUDE. 

PUBLIC  HIGHWAYS. 

Colorado — Male  prisoners  in  county  and  city  jails  are  compelled  to 
work  for  eight  hours  a  day ;  road  work  is  permitted,  except  that  bridge 
building  and  other  work  of  like  character  requiring  skilled  labor  is  pro- 
hibited. One  half  of  the  net  earnings  of  the  prisoners  after  the  deduc- 
tion of  the  expenses  for  guarding,  is  to  be  paid  dependents  who  are 
likely  to  become  a  public  charge.  C.  130. 

Florida — Work  on  public  roads  by  county  convicts  is  allowed  in 
Columbia  County  upon  the  expiration  of  existing  leases,  upon  petition  of 
the  majority  of  voters.  C.  6258. 

Idaho — A  constitutional  amendment  is  to  be  voted  on  at  the  next 
general  election  to  consider  the  repeal  of  the  provision  that  convicts 
shall  not  work  outside  the  prison  grounds  except  on  public  works  under 
the  direct  control  of  the  state.  C.  234. 

Illinois — Board  of  Prison  Industries  under  direction  of  the  Gover- 
nor is  authorized  to  employ  not  more  than  40  per  cent  of  the  state  pris- 
oners in  improving  the  channels  of  certain  rivers.  H.  B.  737. 

Kansas — County  Commissioners  may  allow  prosecuting  witnesses, 
failing  to  pay  fines  and  costs  adjudged  against  them,  by  agreement,  to 
labor  on  public  works  instead  of  on  the  chain  gang.  C.  235. 

Kansas — Surplus  prisoners  in  the  penitentiary  and  reformatory  to 
be  used  in  the  construction  of  certain  macadamized  roads.  C.  252. 

Michigan — All  able-bodied  state  prisoners  may  be  placed  on  the 
county  roads.  "A  fair  and  just  compensation  for  such  labor"  shall  be 
paid  by  the  road  commission,  the  minimum  to  be  fixed  by  the  Joint 
Board  of  Control  at  fifty  cents  a  day,  plus  a  bid-price  bonus.  The  award 
of  labor  is  to  the  highest  bidder.  The  expense  of  guarding  "if  guards 
are  necessary"  is  born  by  the  prison  authorities — transportation,  housing, 
food  and  tools  by  the  county  road  commissioners ;  stone  crushing  and  like 
work  is  allowed,  but  nothing  requiring  skilled  labor.  Board  of  Control 
is  empowered  to  grant  additional  good  time  allowance  conditioned  on 
good  behavior  while  so  employed.  No.  181. 

Nevada — Male  convicts  in  state  prison  are  allowed,  if  they  desire 
and  the  warden  and  board  are  willing,  to  be  placed  on  the  state  roads. 
Stripes  need  not  be  worn,  the  maximum  punishment  being  return  to 
penitentiary  and  forfeit  of  credits.  Ten  days  in  addition  to  the  usual 
deduction  for  good  behavior  are  allowed  per  month  as  reward  and  a 


APPENDIX    II.  157 

■wage  of  25  cents  a  day,  which  the  prisoner  may  request  the  hoard  at  its 
discretion  to  pay  dependents  in  distress,  or  to  retain  until  release  when 
it  is  added  to  discharge  money.  The  work  is  under  the  state  engineer 
with  the  approval  of  the  Prison  Commission.  County  road  work  is  by 
agreement.  Bridges  are  built  by  skilled  labor.  Expense  of  maintenance 
of  convicts  is  charged  to  county.  Prison  authorities  regulate  hours, 
conduct,  and  general  control  of  prisoners  and  pay  50  cents  a  day  toward 
clothing  and  commissary.  $20,000  is  appropriated  as  a  general  road 
fund  for  all  other  expenses.  C.  71. 

North  Carolina — Board  of  Commissioners  of  Buncombe  County  to 
work  convicts  outside  the  county  for  the  purpose  of  getting  out  material 
for  road  work.  S.  B.  873. 

Ohio — The  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Ohio  Penitentiary  is  author- 
ized to  operate  a  stone  crushing  plant  and  manufacture  crushed  stone  to 
be  sold  in  the  open  market  for  roads  and  ballast.  S.  B.  238. 

S.  Carolina — Able-bodied  male  convicts,  including  those  sentenced 
for  over  ten  years,  are  placed  on  chain-gang,  unless  otherwise  provided  by 
special  order  of  the  judge.  Certain  counties  are  made  exceptions. 
Races  and  sexes  are  to  be  separated,  except  at  the  penitentiary,  the  state 
farms  and  Kershaw  County.  County  Commissioners  may  turn  over 
chain-gang  men  to  the  penitentiary.  No.  no. 

Utah — Limitations  are  taken  off  the  work  of  convicts  on  roads. 
The  county  commissioners  are  authorized  to  make  regulations  for  state 
prisoners  to  work  on  roads  laid  out  by  the  road  commission,  through  a 
road  engineer  paid  by  the  commission.  The  prisoners  are  to  be  super- 
vised by  the  warden  who  pays  guards  and  foremen,  purchases  road 
material  and  tools  and  provides  for  transportation.  Hours  of  labor 
limited  to  eight.  $20,000  is  appropriated.  The  Board  of  Pardons  has 
power  to  give  reduction  of  sentence  for  good  behavior.  C.  75. 

Utah — County  Commissioners  are  empowered  to  build  city  jails  and 
workhouses  and  make  regulations  (C.  120)  and  to  provide  for  the  work 
of  prisoners  in  county  jails  on  roads  and  public  buildings.  C.  119. 

Washington — Stockades  and  other  buildings  are  authorized  to  be 
built  at  suitable  quarry  sites  by  the  State  Highway  Commissioner  who 
shall   secure   machinery   and   equipment.      A   sufficient   number   of   able- 


158  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

bodied  convicts  are  to  keep  the  quarry  running  continuously.  Convicts 
shall  be  in  charge  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Penitentiary.  Crushed 
stone  shall  be  sold  to  the  state  and  sub-divisions  of  the  state  at  not  less 
than  10  per  cent  above  cost  to  produce.  Preference  is  to  be  given  the 
state  and  sub-divisions  but  stone  may  also  be  sold  at  not  less  than  cost  to 
the  public,  preference  being  given  to  the  citizens  of  Washington.  Free 
labor  may  be  employed  within  the  stockade  and  at  the  quarry  sites  in  the 
production  of  material.  $100,000  is  appropriated  to  carry  this  into 
effect.     Profits  are  to  be  placed  in  a  rotary  fund.  C.  1 14. 

STATE  USE. 

California — Convicts  are  to  be  employed  in  manufacture  exclusively 
for  public  use,  except  that  the  manufacture  of  jute  and  the  crushing  of 
stone,  and  their  sale,  continue  as  at  present.  The  Board  of  Prison  Di- 
rectors is  to  determine  the  kind,  quality  and  quantity  of  goods  to  be 
manufactured  and  fix  the  price,  which  is  to  be  as  near  as  possible,  pre- 
vailing market  price.  All  articles,  materials  and  supplies  are  to  be  pur- 
chased from  this  source  if  the  prisons  are  able  to  furnish  them.  The 
State  Board  of  Examiners  shall  regulate  the  sale  and  distribution,  and 
the  system  of  payments  and  accounts.  Part  i.     C.  56. 

California — A  permanent  revolving  fund  is  provided  and  an  ap- 
propriation of  $20,000.  The  fund,  having  been  turned,  any  surplus  re- 
sulting is  semi-annually  to  be  paid  into  the  treasury  and  to  be  the  "prison 
fund  of  San  Quentin  Prison"  for  the  support  of  the  prison  and  the  in- 
dustries therein.  C.  57. 

Idaho — Permission  is  granted  to  work  convicts  on  all  public  works 
under  the  direct  control  of  the  state.  Prohibition  of  employment  of 
convicts  outside  the  penitentiary,  and  of  letting  contracts  for  labor  con- 
flicting with  the  existing  manufacturing  interests  of  the  state  are  repealed- 
C.  216.  Permission  is  granted  to  work  prisoners  in  preparing  grounds^ 
manufacturing  building  material  and  constructing  state  sanitariums,  under 
prison  guards  paid  out  of  appropriation  for  the  building  of  the  sani- 
tarium. C.  41. 

Indiana — The  Board  to  fix  prices  is  reorganized  into  the  Board  of 
Classification,  omitting  the  Governor  and  Auditor,  and  composed  of  the 
President  of  the  Reformatory,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Reformatory 


APPENDIX    II.  1^9 

and  the  head  officer  of  two  other  state  institutions  (to  be  named  an- 
nually by  the  Governor).  This  Board  is  to  determine  the  quality  and 
style  of  articles  as  well  as  price.  Goods  cannot  be  brought  for  the  state 
and  political  divisions  from  any  source  other  than  the  reformatory  save 
upon  release  by  the  superintendent.  The  provision  that  the  political  di- 
visions cannot  be  compelled  to  pay  a  greater  price  for  supplies  than  that 
at  which  supplies  of  like  quality  can  be  purchased  elsewhere,  is  repealed. 
The  fund  from  the  profits  of  contracts  and  trade  schools  since  1905  can, 
when  it  reaches  $50,000,  be  used  as  a  working  capital  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  state  industries.  C.  212. 

Missouri — The  contract  system,  after  the  expiration  of  existing  con- 
tracts, and  the  public  account  system,  except  in  the  case  of  binder-twine, 
are  prohibited.  The  working  of  three  hundred  state  prisoners  on  state 
roads  is  allowed.  Hard  labor,  eight  hours  a  day,  is  prescribed  as  a 
means  of  industrial  training  and  the  production  of  supplies  for  the  state 
and  political  subdivisions  including  all  the  public  offices  and  institutions, 
together  with  building  material  therefor  is  authorized.  Beginning  April 
1st,  1912.  at  least  three  hundred  convicts  shall  be  added  each  year  to  the 
number  thus  employed  until  all  are  employed.  Board  of  Penitentiary 
Inspectors  fixes  the  price  at  which  supplies  shall  be  sold.  From  no  other 
source,  unless  upon  releases  signed  by  the  inspectors,  can  such  supplies 
be  brought,  audited  or  paid  for  by  state  officials.  Authority  is  given  to 
equip  the  institution  for  this  work  and  to  sell  old  machinery.  A  detail 
report  is  required  to  be  sent  to  the  Legislature.  S.  B.  23. 

N.  Jersey — The  sale  on  the  open  market  of  the  products  of  convict 
labor  of  any  state  penal  institution  is  prohibited,  after  the  expira- 
tion of  existing  contracts.  A  preferred  market  is  established  consist- 
ing of  all  manufacturable  articles  consumed  by  the  state  and  sub- 
divisions thereof.  A  Prison  Labor  Commission  (consisting  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Charities  and  Correction,  the  Prison  Warden,  the  Re- 
formatory Superintendent  and  two  others  appointed  by  the  Governor 
with  the  consent  of  the  Senate  for  a  term  of  five  years  from  May  ist, 
191 1),  is  created  to  so  regulate  the  penal  industries  that  there  is  pro- 
duced the  greatest  amount  consumable  by  this  preferred  market.  It  is 
to  publish  a  list  of  all  possible  articles  of  manufacture  and  grant  releases 


l6o  PENAL   SERVITUDE. 

when  articles  cannot  be  supplied.  Penal  officers  are  required  to  keep  all 
physically  capable  convicts  employed,  not  to  exceed  nine  hours  a  day 
except  Sundays  and  holidays,  on  productive  work  or  in  receiving  indus- 
trial and  scholastic  instruction.  Yearly  budgets  are  to  be  sent  by  October 
ist  to  the  Commission  by  all  purchasing  officials  in  the  state.  The  penal 
institutions  are  to  report  fully  regarding  all  convict  labor  and  its  pro- 
ductive power  together  with  the  cost  of  production.  A  uniform  system 
of  accounting  is  to  be  established,  together  with  a  standardization  of 
commodities  to  be  manufactured,  on  which  is  to  be  affixed  a  fair  price. 
Agricultural  pursuits  are  to  be  given  preference  and  the  products  sold 
as  above,  except  that  the  surplus  products  may  be  sold  at  advertised 
auction  to  the  general  public  once  in  six  months  unless  they  are  of  de- 
structible character  and  require  more  immediate  sale.  Counties  and 
municipalities  are  to  conform  to  the  state  plan  but  may  employ  the 
prisoners  for  their  own  use.  Charitable  institutions  are  allowed  to  man- 
ufacture for  their  own  use.  Prisoners'  famiUes  dependent  on  charity 
are  relieved  by  the  Commissioner  of  Charities  at  the  rate  of  fifty  cents 
for  every  day  the  prisoner  works.  The  relief  fund  is  limited  to  5  per  cent 
of  the  value  of  all  goods  produced.  The  services  of  charitable  societies 
are  to  be  used  for  making  investigations  of  families.  The  estimates  of 
added  appropriations  needed  to  carry  this  into  effect  are  to  be  included 
in  annual  estimates.    Commission  reports  to  the  Governor.  S.  B.  150. 

N.  Jersey — The  Board  of  Managers  of  New  Jersey  Reformatory  can 
cancel  contracts  for  labor  of  inmates,  with  consent  of  contractors,  and 
adjust  claims.  C.  99. 

N.  Dakota — A  factory  for  supplying  equipment  for  schools  and  public 
institutions  is  authorized,  to  be  established  and  maintained  out  of  a  fund 
consisting  of  25  per  cent  of  the  net  profits  of  the  penitentiary  brick  yard, 
which  profits  previously  went  for  road  building.  The  value  of  the  con- 
victs' labor  the  warden  is  authorized  to  deduct  from  the  profits  of  the 
brick-yard  and  school-supply  factory  and  to  use  for  any  institutional 
purpose.  C.  205. 

Ohio — A  Board  of  Administration,  consisting  of  four  experts,  is 
created  to  take  over  the  entire  management  of  the  charitable  and  penal 
institutions  of  the  state  to  ensure  scientific  treatment  and  the  highest 
attainable  degree  of  economy  in  the  administration  of  state  institutions. 


APPENDIX    II.  l6l 

A  salary  of  $5000  and  expenses  is  given  with  a  tenure  of  office  for  four 
years,  together  with  the  offices  of  Secretary  at  $5000  and  Fiscal  Super- 
visor at  $4000.  The  entire  time  of  the  members  is  required  and  resi- 
dence at  the  State  Capitol.  No  more  than  two  are  to  be  members  of  any 
one  political  party.  August  15th,  1911,  is  the  date  of  assumption  of 
control  by  the  Board.  Besides  the  usual  administrative  duties  in  regard 
to  the  institution  the  Board  may  assign  the  industries,  fix  the  prices  at 
which  the  goods  may  be  exchanged  (seeking  to  attain  the  usual  market 
price),  fix  upon  designs  and  enforce  the  purchase  of  articles.  An  officer 
or  agent  violating  the  provision  is  guilty  of  misdemeanor  and  liable  to 
fine  of  $25.00  for  first  offence  and  $100.00  for  subsequent  offences.  Board 
is  to  regulate  the  culture  of  institutional  lands  and  rent  additional  lands 
if  necessary,  the  products  to  be  sold  to  the  state  institutions ;  also  to 
establish  a  system  of  accounting  and  to  require  from  the  officials  of  the 
state  and  political  divisions  estimates  for  the  ensuing  year.  In  investi- 
gations the  Board  is  empowered  to  administer  oaths  and  compel  atten- 
dance of  witnesses  and  to  pay  the  fees  of  the  same.  An  annual  report 
is  to  be  made  to  the  Governor  and  the  administration  is  to  be  absolutely 
non-partisan.  H.  B.  146. 

Wyoming — The  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Reform  (the  Gover- 
nor, Auditor,  Treasurer,  Secretary  of  State  and  the  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction)  is  empowered  to  create  the  office  of  warden,  salary 
$2000.  This  Board  and  the  Warden  are  created  a  state  Commission  on 
Prison  Labor,  to  regulate,  according  to  its  best  judgment,  the  employ- 
ment of  the  state  convicts  so  that  they  acquire  a  knowledge  of  a  trade  at 
which  they  can  earn  a  livelihood  upon  release.  The  labor  of  the  convict 
is  to  be  upon  products  for  the  state  and  subdivisions  of  the  state.  Public 
officials  cannot  purchase  in  the  open  market,  unless  upon  release  by  the 
Commission.  Budget  for  the  ensuing  year  must  be  sent  the  Commission 
by  October  ist  each  year.  A  uniform  system  of  reports  and  accounts 
may  be  required  for  requisition  of  supplies  so  as  to  diversify  the  indus- 
tries. The  price  is  fixed  at  the  market  price.  The  type  of  articles  may  be 
standardized.  Prisoners  in  the  discretion  of  the  Commission  receive  a 
graded  compensation,  in  no  case  more  than  10  per  cent  of  earnings  of 
institution.  Fines  are  imposed  as  a  substitute  for  punishment,  not  to 
exceed  50  cents  a  day.     Surplus  earnings  can  go  to  family,  are  never  to 


l62  PENAL  SERVITUDE. 

be  used  in  buying  commissary,  but  the  balance  paid  on  release,  subject 
to  draft.  If  parole  is  broken,  men  are  fined  for  the  expense  of  recap- 
ture. Discharged  prisoners  get  suit  and  $35  if  longer  than  6  months  in 
institution.  The  warden  is  required  to  make  a  monthly  report  to  the 
Commission.  C.  61. 


INDEX. 


INDEX 


Alabama,   Banner  Mine,   1- 

America,  economic  demand  for  colonists,  3 ;  substitute  for  prison  for 
Europe,  3 ;  protest  against  deportation  of  criminals  from  Eng- 
land, 3 ;  cheaper  slave  labor  from  Africa,  4 ;  organized  labor,  92. 

"American  and  English  Encyclopedia  of  Law,"  cited  1. 

American  Federation  of  Labor,  attitude  towards  convict  labor,  54. 

Prison    Association,    organization,   90;    platform    of   principles, 

91. 

—  — Social   Service  Association,  discussion  of  prison  labor.  Journal 

of  Socio!  Science,  vol.   VI.,  cited  91. 

Society  for  Moral  and  Social  Prophylaxis,  "Proceedings,  Dec. 

13th,  1911,"  cited  81. 

Revolution,   criminals   used  in   army  service,   5. 

Arkansas,  prohibition  of  participation  by  warden  in  profits  of  contractor, 
24 ;  state  farms,  Message  of  Governor  George  W.  Donaghey, 
1011,  cited  50. 

Assembly,  appoints  board  of  control  in  Kentucky  and  South  Carolina,  22. 

Atlanta      Federal  Prison,  construction  work,  35. 

Australia,  a  new  field  for  the  convict,  4. 

Austrian  Government,  appropriation  for  basket  industry  in  penal  insti- 
tutions, 12. 

Basket  Industry,  12. 

Beggars,    criminals  of  the  misdemeanant  type,  26. 

Belgium,    rasp  houses,  26. 

Bentham,  Jeremy,    "Panopticon,"    cited   4. 

Board  of  Control,  governor  a  member,  19 ;  appointed  by  governor,  19 ; 
officers  appointed  by  governor  on  board,  19 ;  senate  passes  on 
appointments,  19 ;  members  of  council  on  board.  19 ;  council 
passes  on  appointments,  22 ;  appointed  by  assembly,  22 ;  elected 
by  people,  22 ;  opposition  to  use  of  convicts  in  construction 
work,  35;  central  board  of  control,  91. 

Boot   and   Shoe   Industry,   70. 

Boswell,     Helen   Varick,   94. 

Brandeis,  Louis  D.  "Address  before  the  Senate  Committee  on  Inter- 
state and  Foreign  Commerce,"  New  York  Times,  Dec.  15th, 
1911,  cited  72. 

Branding  Laws,   69. 

Brockway,  Z.  R.,  convict  labor  resolution.  Proceedings.  National  Prison 
Association.  1888,  cited  92. 

Bureau  of  Clearance,  between  state  productive  institutions  and  supply 
departments  under  state  control.  98 ;  with  full  power  over  pur- 
chase of  state,  county  and  municipal  departments,  100. 

Butler,  Nicholas  Murray,  "Address,  Columbia  Alinniii  Ncn's,  N'm:  1911, 
cited  99. 

C.  3.  3.,     "The  Ballad  of  Reading  Gaol,"  cited  19. 


u 

California,  state  production  and  consumption  of  convict  goods,  7;  prohi- 
bition of  participation  by  warden  in  contractor's  profits,  24; 
union  opposition  to  construction  work,  36;  play  given  by  pro- 
fessionals at  San  Quentin  Prison,  86. 

Capital  Fund,  state  appropriation.  55 ;  revolving  fund,  55. 

Chair  Industry,  71. 

Children,  in  mills,  5 ;  vi^ith  parent  in  almshouse,  26 ;  forced  to  work  by 
competition  of  convict  labor,  67 ;  prisoner's  earnings  for  his 
children,  85 ;  withdrawal  from  poorhouse,  26. 

Civic  Federation,  investigation  in  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  cited  97. 

Civil,  maintenance    of    convicts,    33;    management    of    production    of 

convict  goods,  59 ;   distribution  of  convict  products,   59. 

Colorado,  prohibition  of  participation  by  warden  in  contractor's  profits, 
24;  convicts  pitch  road  tents,  35;  honor  system,  (50). 

Competition,  between  convict  goods  and  the  products  of  free  labor,  7,  12, 
68. 

Congress,  bill  introduced  restricting  sale  of  convict  goods,  70,  92 ;  re- 
striction of  importation  of   foreign  convict  goods,  12,  70. 

Connecticut,  underground  caverns  at  Newgate,  4 ;  restriction  of  warden's 
power  to  punish  prisoners,  24;  New  Haven  Jail  contractor 
empowered  to  punish  prisoners,  66 ;  New  Haven  Jail,  investi- 
gation by  Civic  Federation,  cited  97. 

Convict,  control  affected  by  party  politics,  19 ;  efficiency,  8,66 ;  family, 
26;  leased,  33,  49;  wage  (introduction),  8,  41,  85,  99. 

Convict  Goods,  low  price,  67 ;  competition,  12,  68 ;  branding  laws,  69 ;  bill 
restricting  sale,  70,  92;  classification  and  standardization,  62; 
transfer  between  institutions,  61 ;   inter-state  exchange,  75,  84. 

Co-operation,  secured  by  absolute  control  in  central  head,  59 ;  feature 
in   modern   industry,   60. 

County  Institutions,  supervision,  25 ;   state  control,  28. 

Crawford,  G.  G.,  President  Tennessee  Coal  and  Iron  Company,  67. 

Dandridge,  D.,  "American  Prisoners  of  the  Revolution,"  cited  4. 

Deangelis.  P.  C.  J.,  18. 

Departments,  state,  county,  municipal,  23 ;  transfer  of  commodities  be- 
tween institutions  and  departments,   61. 

Detroit,      House  of  Correction,  71 ;   Murphy  Chair  Company,  71. 

Dewey,       John,  "Interest  in  relation  to  the  Will,"  cited  82. 

"School   and   Society,"  cited   82. 

Distribution  of  Convict  Goods,  limited  to  state  use  market  or  through 
general  competitive  market,  (Introduction)  ;  legislative  regula- 
tions of  1911,  7 ;  problem  of  the  market,  59 ;  general  competitive 
market.   65 ;    preferred  market,   61 ;   isolated   market,   73. 

Dix.  John  A..  18,  66. 

Donaghev,  George  W.,  "Message  to  the  Arkansas  Legislature,  1910," 
'  cited  50. 

Eaves,        L.  C,  "California  Labor  Legislation,"  cited  6,  69. 

Economic  history  points  out  that  the  value  of  labor  of  wayward  affected 
methods  of  punishment,  2. 

distress,  hangman,  3. 

dem.and   for  colonists   for  America,  3. 

Education,  fundamental  basis  of  modern  education  in  activities  of  penal 
institution,  82. 

Edwards,  A.  M.,  "The  Labor  Legislation  of  Connecticut,"  cited  6. 

Efficiency  of  the  Convict,  demonstrated  by  contractor,  52 ;  increased  by 
stint  with  bonus,  8,  85 ;  averages  two-thirds  that  of  free  labor, 
66. 


Ill 

"Encyclopedia  Americana,"  cited  4- 

England,  government  assumption  of  control  over  wandering  class,  3 ; 
children  in  cotton  mills,  5 ;  workhouses,  26 ;  Prison  Labor  Re- 
form Association,  91;  convict  wage  a  privilege,  (Introduction). 

London,    Prisoners'    Aid    Association,    89. 

Farm,  civil  management,  50 ;  connected  with  institution,  38 ;  co- 
operative work,  50 ;  practical  educational  value,  84. 

Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  request  for  investigation  of  prison  labor 
conditions,  93. 

Feeble-minded,   withdrawal   from  poorhouse,   26. 

Fetter,  Frank  A.,  "State  Supervision  and  Control,"  Proceedings 
National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  1909,  cited 
23. 

Feudalism,  control  over  wayward,  2. 

Fiske,         John,  "Old  Virginia  and  her  Neighbors,"  cited  3. 

"The  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies  of  America,"  cited  3. 

Foster,       Mrs.  J.  Ellen,  94. 

France,  convict  wage  a  right,  (Introduction)  ;  Prisoners'  Aid  Associa- 
tion, 89. 

Free  Labor,  wage  cut  by  convict  labor,  67. 

Fry,  Elizabeth,   productive  work  introduced  at   Newgate,   4. 

"Observations  on  the  Visiting,  Superintendence,  and  Govern- 
ment of  Female  Prisoners,"  cited  4. 

George  Junior  Republic,  natural  use  of  money  earned,  86. 

George,  Wm.  Jr.,  "George  Junior  Republic,  Its  History  and  Ideals," 
cited  86. 

Georgia,     board  of  control  elected  by  people,  22. 

Germany,  convict  wage  a  privilege,  (Introduction)  ;  rasp  houses,  26;  So- 
ciety  for  Public  Account,  92,  state  subsidized  institutions,  74. 

Goldsmith,  Oliver,   "Vicar  of   Wakefield,"   cited   26. 

Governors'  Conference,  bureau  for  interchange  of  prison  commodities, 
75;  Meeting  at  Frankfort,  Ky.,  94;  Meeting  at  Spring  Lake, 
N.  J.,  95. 

Governors'  Messages,  "Prison  Labor  in  the  Governor's  Messages."  See 
Appendix  2. 

Hall,  A.  G.,  "Crime  and  Social  Progress,"  cited  2. 

Hampton  Institute,  prohibition  of  sale  of  products  in  county,  71. 

Harrison,  Shelby  M.,  "A  Cash  Nexus  for  Crime,"  The  Survey,  Jan.  6th. 
1912,  cited  51,  52. 

Hardy,  Rives  B.,  "A  Digest  of  the  Laws  and  Practices  of  all  the  States 
of  the  Union  in  reference  to  the  Employment  of  Convicts," 
cited  95. 

Henderson,  C.  R.,  "Modern  Prison  Systems,"  cited  Introduction. 

"Penal    and    Reformatory   Institutions,"    cited  Introduction. 

Hobhouse,L.  T.,  "Morals  in  Evolution,"  cited  2,  10. 

Holloware  Industry,  monopolized  by  prisons,   71. 

Honor  System  effectively  used  in  Colorado  and  Oregon,  50. 

Hood,        Thomas,  "The  Song  of  the  Shirt,"  cited  Introduction. 

Howard,    John,  4,  5,  28,  91. 

"State  of  Prisons,"  cited  4. 

Hov/erth,  I.  W.,  "Social  Aim  and  Education,"  5th  Year  Book  National 
Hebbard  Society,  cited  82. 

Hughes,     Charles  E.,  93. 

Humanitarian  Idea,  protest  against  conditions  such  as  Howard  de- 
nounced, 5. 

Idaho,  prohibition  of  participation  by  warden  in  profits  of  contractor, 
24;  restriction  on  convict-made  goods,  69. 


IV 

Illinois,  Chester  Penitentiary,  78 ;  Resolutions,  Federation  of  Labor, 
Weekly  Bulletin  of  the  Clothing   Trades  cited  54. 

Imprisonment  for  Debt,  26. 

Incentive  of  Interest,  (Introduction),  85. 

Indeterminate  Sentence,  24,  87. 

Indiana,      restriction  on  use  of  institution  moneys  by  warden,  24. 

Industrial  Revolution,  a  new  use  for  the  convict,  5. 

Insane,        withdrawal  from  poorhouse,  2G. 

International  Prison  Congress,  90,  94. 

Iowa,         Fort  Madison,  78. 

Johnson,    Alexander,  "The  Almshouse,"  cited  26. 

Kansas,  public  ownership  of  coal  mines,  52 ;  revolving  fund,  55 ;  moving 
pictures   in  prison,  86,  binder-twine,   74. 

Kentucky,  restriction  placed  on  warden  regarding  punishment,  24 ;  board 
of  control  elected  by  assembly,  22;  Governors'  Conference  at 
Frankfort,  94;  contract  price  in  state  penitentiary,  66. 

Knights  of  Labor,  92. 

"Legislation  of  1911,"  The  American  Labor  Legislation  Review  vol.  1, 
no.  s,  cited  (Introduction),  2,  7. 

Lamb,        C.  H.,  86. 

Leasing,  long-term  convicts,  33;  short-term  convicts,  33. 

Legislation,  "Prison  Labor  in  the  Legislation  of  1911,"  see  Appendix  2. 

Legislature,  artificially  creates  market,  65;  regulates  state  control  over 
convict  slaves,  19. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  "Slavery — A  Fragment  written  about  July  1st,  1854," 
The   Century  Edition,  cited   8,  9. 

Lincoln,      C.  Z.,  "Constitutional  History  of  New  York  State,"  cited  7,  92. 

Liszt,  Franz  V.,  "Die  Gefangnisarbeit,"  cited  26. 

Lombroso,  Caesar,  "Crime,  Its  Causes  and  Remedies,"  cited  Introduction, 
81. 

Maintenance  Labor,  33,  35. 

Mann,        William  Hodges,  95. 

Manufacturing,  articles  for  use  in  institution,  37;  for  outside  consump- 
tion, 52. 

Market  for  Convict  Goods,  53,  59 ;  artificially  created,  65 ;  general  com- 
petitive, 59,  65,  72 ;  isolated  73 ;  preferred,  61. 

Maryland,  restriction  on  warden  regarding  punishment,  24 ;  overhead 
charges.  House  of  Correction,  66 ;  use  of  over-time  money, 
at  penitentiary,  86 ;  wage  for  stint  and  overtime,  Baltimore 
City  Jail,   85. 

Report  on  House  of  Correction,  made  by  the  National  Com- 
mittee on  Prison  Labor,  96,  see  Appendix  1. 

Massachusetts,  restriction  placed  on  warden  regarding  punishment,  24; 
hand-looms  in  prisons,  52;  farm  work,  84; 

Boston,    Prisoners'    Aid    Association,    89;    Meeting,    National 

Prison  Association,  92. 

McDonough,  John  T.,  92. 

Merrill,      Alfred,  18. 

Methods  of  Report  and  Accounting,  99. 

Michigan,  revolving  fund,  55 ;  restriction  on  production  of  convict  goods, 
69 ;  Detroit  House  of  Correction,  71 ;  Jackson  Prison,  86 ; 
binder-twine,  74. 

Mining,  educational  value  for  convict,  51 ;  public  to  supersede  private 
ownership,  52;   responsibility   for  accidents,   51. 

Minnesota,  sale  of  commodities,  Annual  Reports,  Minnesota  State  Prison, 
cited  7 ;  binder-twine,  74 ;  Minneapolis  City  Workhouse,  36 ; 
correspondence  courses  in  prison,  86. 


Missouri,  state  production  and  consumption  of  convict  goods,  7 ;  Jeflferson 
City,  79. 

Municipal   Penal   Institutions,  local   control,   25. 

National  Anti-Convict  Contract  Association,  92. 

Branding  Bill,  92. 

Child  Labor  Committee,  Publications,  cited  6. 

Commission,  similar  to  U.  S.  Industrial  Commission,  95. 

Committee  on   Prison   Labor,   organization,   94;    functions,   96; 

Letter  to  Governors'  Conference,  94;   Publications,  95;   Origin 

and  Purpose,   The  Survey,  Feb.  18th,  1911,  cited  52. 

Report  on  Maryland  House  of  Correction,  96,  see  Appendix  1. 

National  Committee  on  Prison  Labor,  "Prison  Labor  in  the  Party  Plat- 
forms of  1910,"  Appendix  11- 

"Prison   Labor   in   the  Governors' 

Messages,"  see  Appendix  11. 

"Prison  Labor  in  Legislation,"  see 

Appendix  11- 

Conference  of   Charities  and   Correction,  91. 

Free  Labor  Association,  93. 

Government,  exchange  of  products  betvireen  states  and,  74,  75; 

need   for  broad  investigation,   95. 

Immigration   Commission,   "Report,"   cited  50. 

Prison   Association,   resolution    for  conference   with  governors 

on  the  prison  labor  problem,  Proceedings  National  Prison  Asso- 
ciation, 1888,  cited  92. 

— ■ prisoners,  33,  36,  75. 

Navy  Department,  "Form  A.,"  cited  70. 

Nebraska,  Prohibition  of  participation  by  warden  in  profits  of  contractor, 
24. 

New  Jersey,  state  production  and  consumption  of  convict  goods,  7 ;  Gov- 
ernors'  Conference   at   Spring  Lake,   95. 

New  York,  Ass.  Doc.  289,  1834,  cited  68;  Annual  Reports,  State  Super- 
intendent of  Prisons,  cited  6;  Auburn  Prison,  38;  Board  of 
Classification,  98;  capital  fund,  55;  constitution,  12;  constitu- 
tional amendment,  1894,  7,  92;  Liverpool,  H;  Manhattan  Trade 
School,  72;  market.  New  York  City,  75;  old  hulks  in  Bay,  4 ; 
Prison  ships  at  Wallabout,  5 ;  Onondaga  County,  11,  Peni- 
tentiary, 15;  Prisoners'  Aid  Association,  89;  Sing  Sing  Prison, 
31,  86;  state  production  and  consumption  of  convict  goods,  7; 
Syracuse,  H;  157,  N.  Y.  1,  cited  69. 

Commission  on  Standardization.  "The  Standardization  of  Sup- 
ply Specification  for  the  City  of  New  York,"  cited  99. 

Commission    to    Examine    the    Department    of    State    Prisons, 

"Final  Report,"  cited  31,  57,  83. 

Department   of   Labor,   "Bulletin,    March    1910,"    cited   69,   93; 

investigation  93. 

North  Dakota,  restriction  regarding  type  of  assistants  appointed  by 
warden,   24 ;   revolving  fund,  55. 

Ogelthrope's  Colony,  3. 

Ohio,  state  production  and  consumption  of  convict  goods,  7;   Mans- 

field, 37. 

Organized  Labor,  opposition  to  unfair  competition,  7;  strongest  force 
towards  development  of  state  control  of  prisoner,  7;  con- 
structive program,  7,  92 ;  Resolutions,  Illinois  Federation  of 
Labor,  Weekly  Bulletin  of  the  Clothing  Trades,  cited  55. 

Oregon,      honor   system,   50 ;   Governor  West,   95. 

Osborne,    William  Church,  66. 


VI 

Owen.         Robert,  "The  Life,  Times  and  Labors  of  Robert  Owen,"  cited  5. 

Party  Platforms,  "Prison  Labor  in  the  Platforms  of  1910,"  see  Appen- 
dix 11. 

Party  Politics,  affect  state  control  of  convicts,  19;  elimination  from  all 
eleemosynary  institutions,  91. 

Penalogical  Reform,  organized  movements,  89. 

Penologists,  demand  for  state  control  of  county  institutions,  28. 

Pennsylvania,  restrictions  on  production  of  convict  goods,  Laws  of  1903," 
cited  68;   Prisoners'  Aid  Association,  89. 

Phillipines,  Iwahig  Penal  Colony,  86. 

Pierce,        B.  K.,  "Half  Century  with  Juvenile  Delinquents,"  cited  89. 

Plato,         "Republic,"  cited  2. 

Prison,  earliest  form  in  United  States,  6;  warden,  23-25;  chaplain,  24; 
doctor,  24 ;  maintenance  labor,  33 ;  construction  work,  35 ;  up- 
keep, 36 ;  culinary  and  commissary  departments  37 ;  manufac- 
ture of  articles  for  use  in,  37 ;  book-keeping,  38 ;  book  learning, 
38,  86;  library,  38;  tailor-shop,  38;  civil  vs.  private  manage- 
ment of  industries,  47 ;  road  ctrnps,  49 ;  mines,  51 ;  factories, 
pace-makers  for  free  factories,  52;  distribution  of  products, 
57-75,  residential  trade-school,  87. 

Prisoners,  should  not  penalize  free  labor  or  be  exploited,  8 ;  should  be 
worked  efficiently,  return  cost  to  state,  support  wife  and  chil- 
dren, 8. 

Family,  in  almshouse,   26;   maintained  by  prisoner's  wage,  85, 

100. 

Prisoners  Aid  Associations,  89. 

Pope,         Henry,  66. 

Popular  control  lacking  in  connecion  with  administration  of  penal  system, 
22. 

Powers  of  Supervision,  boards  of  control,  23 ;  inspectors,  23 ;  supervisors, 
23. 

Production  of  Convict  Goods,  attempts  to  limit  economically  wasteful, 
70;  civil,  private,   (Introduction),  47. 

Propagandist  Associations,  91. 

Punishment,  66,  79.  85. 

Quakers,  89. 

Recall,  23,  99. 

Reform  in  Penal  Administration,  centralized  authority,  25 ;  responsibility 
definitely  located,   25. 

"Report,  Committee  on  Children  in  Factories,"  House  of  Commons,  1832, 
cited  5. 

Rhode  Island,  contracts,  69 ;  farm  work,  84 ;  Howard  Prison,  52,  85. 

Road  Work,  supervision,  49  ;  honor  system,  50. 

Root,  Elihu.    93. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  70. 

Roux,         Roger,  "Le  Travail  dans  les  Prisons,"  cited  Introduction. 

Ruggles-Brise,  Sir  Evelyn.  "Proceedings  of  the  Eighth  International 
Penitentiary  Congress,"  cited  28. 

Saturday  Half  Holiday,  86. 

Schell,         R.  Montgomery,  94. 

Seager,  H.  A.,  "Address,"  Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of  Political 
Science,  vol.  11,  no.  2,  cited  74. 

Shaftesbury.  "Life  and  Work  of  the  ^fh  Earl  of  Shaftesbury."  cited  5, 

Sheriff,  controls  county  institutions,  26;  private  in  guise  of  public  sys- 
tem, 33. 

Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act,  71. 


vu 

Shortening  of  Period  of  Incarceration,  87. 

Signs    of     Progress,    development    of    central    board     and     position    of 

warden,  23. 
Slavery,      penal  servitude  last  surviving  vestige  of,  1. 

Slicer,        Thomas   R.,  94,  95. 

Snedden,    David  J.,  "American  Juvenile  Reform  Schools,"  cited  86. 

Standardization,  positions  and  duties,  35;  commodities,  G2. 

Socialism,  "3. 

Social    Intercourse    Among    Prisoners,    86. 

State,  property  right  in  the  prisoner,  (Introduction)  ;  sells  convicts  to 
build  institutions,  5 ;  control  of  convicts  regulated  by  consti- 
tutions and  legislative  enactment,  19 ;  affected  by  party  politics, 
19;  attorney  general,  auditor,  secretary  of  state,  treasurer 
commissioners  of  public  buildings,  railroad  commissioners  on 
boards  of  control,  19;  supervision  and  control,  23;  production 
and  consumption  of  convict  goods,  8,  60,  98;  industrial  schools, 
72. 

Status  of  the  Convict,  1. 

Stint,  movable,  85  ;  with  wage,  8,  85. 

South   Carolina,   assembly  appoints  board  of  control,   22. 

Sprague,  Leslie  Willis,  94. 

Subsidized,  industries,  73 ;  institutions,  71,  74. 

Tennessee,  restriction  as  to  type  of  assistants  appointed  by  warden,  24; 
public  ownership  of  convict  mines,  52. 

Coal  and  Iron  Company,  union  wage,  66;  termination  of  con- 
vict leases,  67. 

Trade  schools,  effect  of  goods  on  market,  71;  type  towards  which  penal 
institutions  are  heading,  87. 

Twine  Industry,  74. 

Uniform    Legislation,    model    law   impossible,    98;    possible    to   lay   down 
certain  principles,  98. 

United  State?  Bureau  of  Information,  "Circular  of  Information,  no.  16, 
1875,"  cited  87. 

Constitution  of  the,  13th   Amendment,  cited  Introduction. 

Department  of  Labor,  "Reports  1885,  1895,  1905,"  cited  66. 

Industrial   Commission,  95. 

Valesh.  Mrs.  Eva  McDonald,  94. 

Van  Kennan,  George  E.,  66. 

Virginia,  Tax  Law,  no.  3  ch.  45,  cited  72;  Symposium  prepared  by  Gov- 
ernor Mann,  95. 

Wage,        legislation  in  1911,  Introduction;   status  in  England,  Germany 
and  France,    (Introduction),  an  incentive,  35;  effect,  41;  over- 
time, 85 ;  union  wage,  67 ;  based  on  stint,  8. 
educational   value   100. 

Warden,  paid  by  manufacturers  or  by  state,  6;  power  23-25;  ingenuity 
in  using  labor  of  prisoners,  35;  business  initiative,  53;  oppo- 
sition to  national  branding  bill,  92. 

Warner,     Amos.  "American  Charities,"  cited  26. 

West,         Oswald,  "The  Prison  Labor  Problem,"  cited  50,  95. 

Weyler,     James  F.,  53. 

Whitin,       E.  S.,  "Factory  Legislation  in  Maine,"  cited  5. 

Wickersham,  George  W.,  95. 

Williams,  John,  "Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor,  New  York 
State,  1910,"  cited  93. 

Wines,       F.   H.,  "Punishment  and   Reformation,"  cited  4. 


vm 

Wisconsin,  restriction  regarding  use  of  institution  moneys  by  warden,  24 ; 
construction  work  at  Green  Bay,  35;  statement  of  contractor 
at  state  prison,  66 ;  wage  system,  Green  Bay,  85. 

Wood,        Mary,   94. 

Work,        choice   for  institution,  83 ;   selection  of  men,  84. 

Workhouse,26. 

Wyoming,  state  production  and  consumption  of  convict  goods,  7. 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


Mf 


Hi 

m 


jMM  u  ^  ^W 


Form  L5 


^ 


3  1 


58  00561' 4366' 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000  912  981 


If  i 


'Un 


